


Island Living

by woollen_pharaohs



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angry Sex, Angst, Australia, Blow Jobs, Culture Shock, Cunnilingus, Dry Humping, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Rhett loves islands, Rough Sex, Summer Vacation, in-text hyperlinks, photo diary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-02-04 23:50:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 36,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12782316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woollen_pharaohs/pseuds/woollen_pharaohs
Summary: Rhett and Link take their families on the Australian vacation they have always wanted to go on. Only, things don't go exactly to plan.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> (This is the fic that makes Rhett's wishes for an Australian vacation happen. He talks about it in [this](https://youtu.be/njXNuSGZnz4?t=642) GMMore)
> 
> So I was thinking one day how I'm always writing fics set in the US where I often have to do a lot of research about what the locations are like, and how nice it would be if I could write a fic set in my own country. Then I happened to watch the GMMore linked above and heard Rhett talking about the Great Ocean Road and look, okay, driving holidays around Australia are one of my favourite kind of holidays. Getting to write about it? Even better. 
> 
> Basically the formula is going to be scenic travel descriptions + smut either at the end or near the end of each chapter. Australia as a setting is essentially just a backdrop for smut, lbr. 
> 
> Photos included for your convenience. None are taken by me. 
> 
> Now if any of you actually bothered to read this prologue, let's talk about Rhett and Link going on vacation in Australia...

**The Long Flight**

Link ears are absolutely ready to pop, but he’s been gritting his teeth, head pressed against the back of the seat for _hours_ , and his eardrums will just _won’t_ cut him a break. Since the plane left LA, he’d dug his fingernails into the armrests and let inertia pin his body to the seat and it had all been _fine_ until his hearing started to go. Everything had gotten very loud very suddenly. Halfway through the take-off, he’d looked across the aisle wishing that he could hold onto his wife’s hand as the whole plane rumbled, but due to her fear of flying she had already taken a sleeping pill that had kicked in the moment she buckled herself in. As he'd been looking enviously at his wife, he’d happened to see Lily eagerly trying to make eye contact with him. She’d been jabbing her finger at the small round window, her mouth wide open, and it had looked as if she were shouting but it had _sounded_ as if she were so distant.

Now, hours later, he’s beginning to wonder if the plane engines hadn’t actually deafened him because no amount of chewing gum or swallowing spit or _willing_ his hearing back is helping to relieve the tension in his inner ears. Not to mention that the kids keep having bouts of arguments about where they were seated. Lily had been assigned the west window seat (much to all of the children’s chagrin), with her younger brother Lando beside her and Christy banking them in on the aisle seat. Link had the seat next to her, divided by the aisle, and had Lincoln on his right with Shepherd in the middle of the five seat row. Locke sat next to Shepherd, with Jessie banking the kids in on the outer aisle. Rhett would have sat on the seat beside her, on the aisle of the east three seater row but he’d been upgraded to first class to give him more leg room. Link would call him lucky, except that Rhett switching seats has caused an upset between the kids who are each vying for Lily’s seat with a view.

Normally he's able to sleep through a house fire, but his ears are bothering him and he knows his children are _definitely_ bothering other passengers. When trying to placate the children doesn’t work, and distracting them with the movies offered on the flight isn’t enough either, Link gives up and closes his eyes. Only, it’s at that moment when Lincoln and Shepherd start wrestling each other, violently rattling the whole row of seats and knocking everyone else around. It’s moments like these that Link had not looked forward to. Rhett too, had entertained the idea of leaving their kids to stay with their cousins for the two weeks that they would be vacationing in Australia. Except, of course, he’s glad that their work and school schedules could all be aligned so that they could all be on this vacation together. It’s better this way, with no one left out. Even if it was extremely difficult to convince Christy to get on the plane in the first place. Still, they haven’t even arrived in the country yet and the flight alone is marking the beginning of the vacation with three Ls that Link does not like. Long, loud, and lousy.

Jessie acts fast. She leans over Locke and scoops Shepherd out of his seat, wrangling him toward first class for Rhett to handle. Lincoln seems distressed about being separated, but only for a moment. He crawls into Shepherd’s vacant seat and with one look at Locke, he pulls on Shepherd’s unused headphones and starts watching the same movie Locke is watching on his screen. The turnaround is almost visual whiplash to watch, a feeling Jessie shared when she returns, a look of astonishment on her face at the sight of a once very loud and rowdy Lincoln now cool as a cucumber with Shepherd absent.

Link thanks her, and thanks her again when he can't hear the sound of his own voice. Jessie shakes her head, then starts pulling out the drowsy pills for the kids. Link gets the idea quickly, but it's strange dealing out the dosages to his kids who he can see but cannot hear. When each child has downed their medicine, Link decides to take one as well, hoping that it will help him ignore his ears. He peels open the lid of his water in a cup and eagerly downs the pill, then closes his eyes.

Except he  _still_ can’t get to sleep. He checks the time. Ten hours left of the flight. He closes his eyes again. Opens. Time. Nine hours and fifty-eight minutes. Again. Another minute passes. Hours to go.

“Why’s Daddy crying?” Lando asks sleepily, though Link doesn’t hear it.

His eyes burn, heavy enough to close but not heavy enough to sleep. He pries his eyes open to watch his daughter say something to her brother, only for Lando to crawl back into Christy's lap. Maybe he should have taken the sleeping pills like his wife had, he thought he wouldn't need them. 

He opens up the ETA display on his screen and watches the plane move along the course. He doesn’t think it’s purely the 19 hour time difference that’s preventing him from sleeping. It’s his darn ears. And how uncomfortable he is. And how loud the kids had been. The memory of looks of annoyance on the other passengers around him lingering in the back of his mind. 

The flight attendant announces that they’ll be turning off the lights and if everyone could please pull down their window shades. Another hour passes. The passengers are all cast in manufactured night. A forced silence. It should help, but he’s no closer to being able to sleep and the perpetual drowsiness is making his eyes water more. In blurry vision, he glances over to see his wife with Lando in her lap, Lily pressed in the corner of her seat, a pillow collecting the drool dripping from her mouth. Even Lincoln and Locke have sunk down in their seats, eyes droopy, the headphones falling off their cheeks.

Perhaps Jessie could see the envy in his eyes because she moves out of her seat and slides toward the empty seat beside Link, careful not to jostle any of the kids’ legs as she squeezes across. She plops down in the seat beside him, her sneakiness subtracted by the ungraceful action as the seat wobbles under new weight. But if their kids made a noise of protest, Link doesn’t hear it anyway. Jessie then envelopes his hand in hers and pets the top of his hand, gentle traces of the bones in his hands with her soft fingertips.

It’s a small gesture to any unsuspecting onlooker who would presume that Jessie is Link’s wife, scandalous if the onlooker were aware of Link’s celebrity. He lets it slide, however, since it’s dark and he’s tired. They don’t normally do anything like this in public, but Lord knows he needs it, especially when Christy’s sleeping like a log and Rhett’s living it up in a spacious first class seat so far away from him. He smiles, and she tilts her head onto his shoulder, sleep coming quickly for her. Link blinks. Slow, heavy, and when his eyes open again, the light rimming the window shades is much brighter and there’s an announcement going over the speakers about seat belts having to go back on.

He must have slept, but he doesn’t feel like it. Jessie’s already back in her assigned seat, a look of relief on her face when she spots an attendant walking down the west aisle, hand in hand with Shepherd. Seatbelts clacked in, pulled tight, fears braced. The turbulence unsettles him. The plane angling to one side for a long time, the longest spiral curving around the sky. Then, as the altitude begins to drop, his ears begin to finally pop. As if he’s reached the surface of the water, he can instantly hear his daughter’s shrieking about being able to spot the bridge from her window.

 

**Day 1: Arrival in Sydney**

The inside of the airport is deceptively cold. As soon as they walk outside, the Australian heat hits them in their faces as if they’d just opened the door to a preheated oven. Jackets are coming off, sweat breaking quickly on the brows of the McLaughlins and Neals, and Rhett’s trying to keep everyone’s spirits up, especially because Link’s mood is starting to affect the kids.

Link looks like he’s gone to hell and back again, and the joke is on the tip of Rhett’s tongue only he knows if he says it, it’s only going to fall flat on someone who’s too tired to mock his own reality. While the kids pile their jackets on top of Rhett’s suitcase, Rhett glances down the road. Many other passengers are dispersing away from the airport, either moving toward the parking lots or the bus stations or are chauffeured. His current task is getting the two families from the airport to their hotel, and first of all, he feels as if he’s on the wrong side of the road. Second of all, he instinctively looks for yellow as he tries to hail a cab, but is surprised to see that Australian cabs are plain white or silver.

He manages to hail a larger white cab for the Neals. Rhett holds in a laugh as he watches Link try to go around to the side with the driver in it, a look of deep confusion when he goes to sit on the passenger seat on the left side. Rhett fits Link’s suitcase in the back and helps Christy with the other bags. After he shuts the trunk, he lowers to see through the back window and waves back at the smiling kids. Christy then puts a hand on Rhett’s elbow and says, “Thanks sweetie. We’ll see you at the hotel.”

Then she climbs into the cab and the minute it takes off, a silver cab darts in to take its place. When the McLaughlins are all pack in, the cab takes off through the city. The further they move away from the airport, the more appealing the city looks. He can see in the side mirrors that Locke and Shepherd have their faces glued against the windows, with Jessie in the middle seat, peering over their youngest son’s shoulder.

They arrive at the hotel with the smell of the ocean under their noses. The trip in the cab was only short, but the price steep. His research seems to be holding up in that the cost of tips seem to be included in the charge, which makes him feel a little better about not tipping the driver. They check into their rooms, bags on the floor, kids bubbly and bouncing all around them with renewed energy. Rhett takes time in his room to change into shorts, the whole while imagining how Link’s in the next room over having already collapsed on his bed, numb to everything. Except it’s no time for sleeping yet. The afternoon sun warm in the sky. They have to tire the kids out before the parents can close their eyes.

Link looks like a zombie the entire time they cart the two families down to the Royal Botanic Gardens. Rhett is grateful to be able to walk around and stretch his legs. Being upgraded to first class was a gift but he’s still not much of a fan of having to remain cooped up in a plane for 15 hours. He’s sure the others feel the same way. It’s a relief to be in the warm sunshine, too. They’d just been moving into winter and he can already tell that the weather is having a positive effect on everyone, even if they are all sweating enough to fill an olympic pool.

He knows that Link would be feeling grateful too if he weren’t so exhausted. He thinks the only reason why Link’s currently animate is because the kids are always snatching his attention to look at this or that, Link’s eyes and ears moving rapidly from funny looking flower to an interactive sculpture to a fat bird laughing in a tree. Rhett wonders if Link will remember any of this after he’s well slept, or if the second day will be as full of wonder as if it were brand new again.

 

  

_[View of Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House from the Royal Botanic Gardens.]_

 

They spend some time roaming around the gardens. Christy reads all about the plants from the little plaques placed around. Rhett doesn’t really care about what’s what though. He can just appreciate the beauty of them. Lots of reds and yellows and leaves all in different shapes than he’s used to seeing. Some of the plants look like they’re from another planet, like something out of Star Trek. As they move through the various collections of gardens, he gets Christy to point out any of the poisonous ones since he and Link are going to have to be aware of any potentially dangerous wildlife they may encounter when they go camping further along in their vacation.

After exiting the gardens near the Sydney Opera House, they manoeuvre the two families toward Circular Quay for a harbor cruise. The sun hasn’t yet set at 6pm, still shining bright and making the silver city sparkle in the evening light. Rhett can tell Link’s internal body clock is seriously struggling with the change when he finds Link trying to lay his head down on the rail deck of the ship. While the tour guide directs everyone’s attention in the opposite direction, Rhett takes the opportunity to pull Link in for a hug.

It’s risky, but undeniably rewarding when Link sighs and melts into Rhett’s arms. Rhett hugs him a little tighter, keeps his eye on the crowd as they all turn their heads in the direction of Cockatoo Island. Surely not everyone is looking in the direction the tour guide wants them to look. Rhett knows that there must be a few pairs of eyes elsewhere, maybe at the view of the docks or the Sydney Harbour Bridge or at the very tall man hugging another man out on the deck of the tour boat.

He’s worried about being recognised. Many had assured him that the chances will be minimised while they’re doing highly touristy activities, but he’s aware that there’s a good number of Mythical Beasts in Australia according to their statistics who may recognise them. If they’re not careful, a secret that they have worked very hard to keep could get out. He takes solace in the fact that they hadn’t publicly announced that they were going on vacation overseas for privacy reasons. Nothing had been mentioned about the specifics of their upcoming break on the show and Rhett had been strict with everyone regarding their social media accounts. They’d agreed that there would be much to talk about on the show afterwards, but while they had their vacation, there would be no work discussion. Just family time. And Rhett’s more than happy to follow through, especially when Link obviously needs someone to hold onto.

“You gotta hang in there for a few more hours, brother,” Rhett says, louder so that Link can hear over the tour guide who is speaking into a microphone.

“I just wanna lie down,” Link mumbles.

Rhett holds back from pressing a kiss in Link’s hair and instead pulls out of the hug, bracing Link by his shoulders and tells him, “Try and stay positive.”

Link pouts, swaying a little in the ocean wind, and all Rhett wants to do is pull Link back into his arms and kiss away his worries, but he can’t. Not here, anyway.

 

-

 

They’re meant to have dinner at a restaurant on the water, one that Stevie had recommended for them, but all nine of them agree that easy, convenient street food will satisfy them. Except, with the setting sun behind them and the lights of the city equalising the brightness, it proves surprisingly difficult to find a street vendor selling anything heartier than carnival snacks. In the end, they rely on the convenience that the McDonald’s - a block down from their hotel - provides them, promising to one another that they’ll eat local foods from the next day onwards. (Although the Neals don't seem so convinced.)

By the time they all squeeze into the elevator at the hotel, the parents stand as the maypole with the kids cycloning around them full of endless energy. After only a half day in another country, the parents are all wondering where the kids’ energies are coming from and how they’re going to last another minute themselves. They concoct a plan to occupy the kids with TV shows while the parents sleep in their respective rooms, only somehow everyone gets stuck in Rhett and Jessie’s room. The kids steal the pillows and sit on the floor at the foot of bed to channel hop through the programs offered on Australian television, while the parents somehow end up draped over each other on the king sized bed. The last thing Rhett recalls before he dozes off is the jolting change of noise as the kids change channels mixing with the familiar yet alien noises of the city wafting in from the open window. That, and a sense of calm from being surrounded by people he loves so dearly.

He’s not sure how much time has passed when he wakes up. The moon has come out, draping the city in a night softened by the twinkling lights above and below the skyline. Those of the kids who weren’t able to pry a pillow out from beneath the adults, have snuggled on top of them like very wriggly, very drool-y blankets. For a second it frightens him when Jessie turns to one side because he hadn’t spotted her before, her black hair imperceptible against the night sky. As she turns, moonlight imparts on her so that Rhett can see, with one eye open, that his wife has detangled herself from the bed of bodies and is currently standing in front of the large window looking over the harbor.

Rhett mentally takes note of all the ways in which he’s tied up before he starts to ease himself off the bed. He hears sighs and mild groans when his weight is lifted from the mattress, and grins when he sees Shepherd and Link encroaching on the newly available space. Random parts of his limbs feel numb, blood slowly pumping back through to spots that were blocked off beforehand. They haven’t slept like this in a long time. Every single one of them, even the kids, have been so busy leading up to this vacation that just being able to spend downtime like this with everyone has been something that Rhett has looked forward to the most. Coming in close behind at second is being able to drive along the Great Ocean Road, of course.

He slides his arms around Jessie, nestling the top of her head beneath his chin like they always do and she holds onto his forearms as they look out at the view. Boats glide across the dark water, cars streaming across the bridge and in the little streets below like fireworks. The city’s a beautiful thing, but Rhett’s looking forward to getting into Australia’s natural landscapes. In two day’s time, he and Link are going to be renting a car and driving off road to the tallest mountain in Australia while the rest of the family fly down the Melbourne. It’s too bad they can’t spend a whole month or more here to really get a feel of the country, but anything more than two weeks would have really pushed the capabilities of nine people being able to holiday at once.

 

 

_[View from the Four Seasons hotel]_

 

“You gonna miss me when we part ways?” Rhett asks her quietly.

“I know you’re looking forward to it,” Jessie whispers back.

“We’ll miss you all,” Rhett assures her. Then adds, “I’m gonna work out the kinks in the internet connection so we can video call you in the evening.”

Jessie gives Rhett’s arm a soft squeeze. “Wish we could’ve given you two more time. Two days isn’t enough.”

Rhett presses a kiss on top of her head and he’s about to say something in reply, only to be startled into a jump when Lando begins to wail in his sleep. His wailing wakes the others up, some kids kicking their feet and in tow, kicking someone in the face or elbowing someone in the gut, everyone far too closely squashed together to be safe.

“Better get ‘em to bed,” Jessie says, clearing her throat.

She peels out of her husband’s arms to help shuffle the kids back into their room. Before Jessie takes Shepherd, she gently stirs Christy, who quickly gets a grasp on the situation despite being heavily asleep just moments beforehand. Christy rouses Lincoln and walks him down the hall to the kids room, closely followed by Jessie with Shepherd in her arms. Rhett leaves Link entangled with a wailing Lando and Lily fighting with her sleep, and hoists Locke into his arms though he’s a heavy one now. On the way down the hall, he gently reminds Locke that he and Lily have to keep a handle on the younger kids. Locke takes the duty with a firm nod, all firmness lost when Rhett tucks him into bed, the kid out cold almost instantly.

He returns to his and Jessie’s room and goes for Lily. Link seems to be awake now, a disgruntled look on his face. Link is so tired that when he scoops up his youngest, wailing child, he seems to just run through all the names  he knows until he lands at the right one. “Link-lil-lo-Lando, come here.”

Together they take Link’s last two kids to their room, Rhett reminding Lily of her duty as well, though she’s as gone as Locke, and he has to leave the other parents to make sure everyone’s in bed and behaving while he returns to his room for a bathroom break. When he comes back out,  he almost hits his head on the door frame on the way out. Still reeling from that, he doesn’t quite process the sight straight away – of Link easing down on the bed they had all just slept on, rather than his wife.

“Hey man,” Rhett says rather stiltedly, though he doesn’t mean to sound like that because honestly he’s relieved. The wives must have talked.

“Jessie’s a saint,” Link says as he takes his shoes and glasses off properly before throwing himself on the bed.

“Christy too,” Rhett replies, "When she listens to reason."

"She made it alright, didn't she?"

Link yawns. "She did."

Rhett had the foresight to toe out of his shoes before lying down earlier, so all he does now is shrug out of his T-shirt before lying down next to Link. The sheets beneath them are strewn this way and that, some spots patchy with grass stains and dirt and he knows he should feel bad about making a mess, but for once, cleaning up isn’t something he has to worry about.

Link snuggles up to him, tucking his head toward Rhett’s chest while Rhett rests one hand on Link’s shoulder.

“How are you feeling?” Rhett asks softly.

“Dead.”

Rhett starts rubbing Link’s back through his shirt, presses that kiss on top of Link’s head that he couldn’t do earlier. Link seems to snuggle closer, his body curling like a baby and Rhett frowns. Link doesn’t normally do this unless something is really wrong.

He knows he’s already asked it but he asks again anyway, “How are you going? Link, are you doing alright?”

Link pauses, then asks, “What’s the time?”

His voice sounds strained as heck and while Rhett twists over to glance at the clock on the bedside table, he knows what’s coming. Still, he tries to keep things light, keep it fun, in hopes that it will help Link from breaking. “It’s almost midnight. Feels like it should be morning, right?”

Just as he twists back, Link’s body jolts with a sob he’d been trying to hide. Rhett clenches his teeth and presses his face into Link’s dark hair as the man continues to shudder through his tears. He keeps his fingers rubbing soothing circles, keeps his hold tight, presses his lips on Link’s head until the man lifts his chin and Rhett tastes Link’s tears on his lips. He tries to fight it himself, tries not to cry, and normally he’d be this formidable force, something to lean on. But now, worn thin by the travel and the weather and the change in culture, he’s finding himself more susceptible to catching Link’s despair.

Link tears his lips away from the kiss to say, “No, no baby, don’t you cry too.”

Rhett presses his forehead against Link’s brow and slowly shakes his head. Eyes straining, trying not to cry like Link said, but with the sight of Link’s wet face right in front of him… He has to talk, he’s good at talking.

“Day one, check,” Rhett says with phlegm in his throat, “What was your favourite part?” When Link doesn’t say anything, Rhett continues, “I liked the cruise. Probably the most exciting thing we did out of the two things today. There’ll be more tomorrow, promise.”

Link’s eyes flutter shut, lips pursed, body flinching with trying to hold himself together.

“Feeling homesick?” he asks after a while.

Link reaches to give Rhett a shake kiss, then looks into his eyes and replies, “Yeah… I’m sorry...”

“Don’t,” Rhett shushes, “Hey, just think, soon it’s just gonna be you and me climbing up a mountain. Aren’t you looking forward to that?”

Link doesn’t say anything in response, only closes his eyes, but Rhett knows that such a despondent answer isn’t illustrating that Link has changed his mind. He’s sure of it. They’ve been talking about this vacation for months. Once the kids found out that the tallest mountain in Australia was half the height of Mt Whitney in California, they had been far more interested in exploring more of Melbourne with their Moms than taking a two day detour with their Dads. Which was actually really good for a couple of things. It’s going to give them some time to practice driving on the other side of the road before they have to drive with distracting children in the back. And, it gives them some much needed best friend time. Something he didn’t think they’d be able to get until two day from now. Fortunately, their wives know how to treat them right.

After some time of clutching onto each other, Link’s shaking seems to cease and rather than being concerned, Rhett’s starting to enjoy the warmth of Link’s breath dancing across his naked chest. They haven’t been able to be this close for an extended period of time, in a very long while. Link in Rhett’s arms, breath heavy, heat between them. So, Rhett can’t exactly help getting a boner, but he’s not going to do anything about it considering Link’s fragile condition.

“I’m tired…” Link murmurs.

Rhett’s not sure if Link is aware of his boner or if it’s in response to something that was said earlier, either way, Rhett smooths a hand over Link’s hair and presses a kiss on his combed hairline before saying, “I know, baby.”

Perhaps it’s a wrong move on his part, but his legs are getting stiff and he needs to stretch, so Rhett lifts his knee up and hooks it over Link’s waist. An action which accidentally alerts Link to the presence of Rhett’s hard-on.

“We don’t gotta do anything, it’s just being so-” Rhett’s voice cracks when he feels Link’s cock, trapped in his skinny jeans, bulge against his inner thigh, “-close to you.”

Rhett swallows. A cool summer breeze laced with the scent of sea salt wafts into his hotel room. Then, in slow increments (as if Rhett wouldn’t notice), Link bucks his hips every so slightly and ruts his hardening cock against Rhett’s thigh.

Link says, “Baby, I’m so tired,” even though he’s rolling his hips again, another treacherously slow buck.

Rhett hisses when he feels the throb against his thigh, his veins pulsing, his heart beating in his throat. He flattens his palm on the small of Link’s back, minimising the gap between them, and his cock tents in his loose shorts, the tip thumbing Link’s hipbone.

“Baby, we don’t gotta do anything if you’re too tired,” Rhett reminds him.

But then Link’s the one angling up to kiss him and it’s not the trembling, tear soaked lips from before, it’s passionate (although still very wet) and his tongue bumps out against Rhett’s. It shouldn’t happen so fast, but the heat between them blinds Rhett, cuts out his vision entirely and lets the hunger for Link take over in his mouth, his fingertips, his swollen cock. He ruts with Link, pressing their cocks together still frustratingly separated by denim and cotton. And it reminds him of when they were young teenagers, rutting against each other in their sleeping bags back when they were scared of sin and terminal, infectious diseases and now they’re both over that and both much older, but still no less scared about a myriad of things. Only now, he’s with his baby, his love, his loving family and lovely (at times) kids, all together in another world, another planet, with nothing to fear except making sure they all have a good time. Especially Link. There’s nothing in the whole world, in the world beyond worlds, that he wants more than for Link to be happy.

Link’s hand grasps at Rhett’s chest, needy, his kissing going slack and breathy and Rhett can feel it in his lazy muscle movements that Link is _so exhausted_ . Rhett fights to keep himself still, a question in the form of his body language to ask Link, wordlessly, _are you sure you want to do this_? Link’s answer comes in a desperate little mewl that yanks Rhett straight back to those youthful memories. A campsite in the middle of the forest, the fire crackling outside of their tent, their fingers knotting together, faces glued together, carpet burn from the nylon rubbing on their sides as they rub one off, together.

It must be his own exhaustion creeping up on him because he’s ready, sooner than usual. And it’s the smallest thing, too. He barely has time to question himself - _just dry humping?_ \- before Link’s making a strangled little groan, they way that he does, his light voice so tortured in the lead up to release. His lips swell and pout around his O-face when he cums simply from the friction between them, and Rhett doesn’t think about it anymore. He just grabs Link’s hand and shoves it down his shorts and Link’s only clumsily pawing at Rhett’s throbbing cock when he’s cumming in his shorts too. A gush of relief rolling out of Rhett in jagged breaths over Link’s shoulder, Link’s hand lax, clamped in place by the elastic of Rhett’s waistband.

They stay like that, heaving, laughing, pressed together or rather stuck together, holding each other together. With shared sweat, with the ocean breeze wafting in, with the heat rising off them into the air to brew storms for another day. Rhett hears the moment that Link’s breathing changes from wakefulness to sleep. He releases Link’s hand, then gets the two of them cleaned up and buck naked so that they can sleep comfortably. A quick prayer to God, as thanks, for the safety, security, and love. _Amen_. Then Rhett drapes a light sheet over himself and Link, and closes his eyes to think about how the next days are going to play out until it wears his mind out enough to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys like it :) lmk what you think, or if you think I missed out any tags, or if you want to chat about cultural differences! I love that stuff.
> 
> Also sorry if it's a little OOC, I'm still getting to know the guys. Please kindly point out anything you think I should fix. Thanks :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, no photos are mine - all found from google image search. i tried to find photos without watermarks but sometimes they just show the quintessential depiction so eh. and in-text links have been added if you want to find out more information about australian animals mentioned or to reference the one direct quote i used.
> 
> p.s. I honestly don't know how this chapter got so long, i'm expecting the subsequent chapters will be much shorter because time will move a lot quicker after this chapter.

**Day 2: Sydney**

 

“Honey?”

He's lying on the ground, hands under his head and he’s bedded by fallen leaves which crumble and crunch beneath his weight. Above him, a canopy of trees slowly shed their leaves. He catches sight of a red leaf which seems to aim toward him, rocketing through the sky like it has a payload to deliver. Halfway toward him, the branches above disappear into thin air. Trunks and roots too; there one second and gone the next. Another blink causes the mound of leaves beneath him to bottom out along with the surface of the Earth. He stays in the same position, lounging in a transparent world devoid of gravity.

“Honey.”

The elements remain. His breath loud. In, out, in, out. Wet tongue, smack of his lips. The lone red leaf rockets toward him, and then suddenly, it begins to burn from the edges. Incremental, fire moving across the tiny veins that make up the body of the leaf. Then, the flames burst into a fireball at the centre of the stems, right before Link’s eyes.

A gentle grip on his shoulder. “Lando didn’t get any sleep last night. I’m gonna leave him here with you.”

Small hands reach through the void and bring color to what was once colorless. He wakes up though his eyes are still closed, body torn across atmospheres and landscapes, upside down and inside out, on the other side of the world. A small child snuggling against his back. The fragrance of Christy’s perfume lingers when she kisses him on the forehead.

“I’m gonna set your alarm. Meet us outside the Art Gallery at 12, okay?”

Christy pulls a thin sheet over both their bodies, trapping body heat in until a metal bolt and an opening window equalises the temperature with the addition of a cool breeze. Link doesn’t hear the door shut, and forgets his dream to dream unknowingly again. A loud ringing drags his soul through oil slicked oceans, his mind surfacing in a place he hadn’t expected. A ceiling he doesn't know, a mattress bigger than his own - is it Rhett’s? A sense of misplaced clarity clings to him; the keys to the car that he had in his pocket the whole time.

The alarm continues to ring. He rolls onto his stomach, head to one side, and cracks open his eyes to see his son curled up next to him, completely unperturbed by the alarm. He sits up and reaches over to grab his phone, slides the alarm off, then sits up against the headboard. From there he can see nothing but blue sky out of the open window, the color darkened slightly by the fly screen mesh. He yawns. He feels like he could keep sleeping. He always does, though. Enjoys a good nap given the opportunity. And although he’s likely been asleep longer than he’s used to, he had also been awake longer than he would have liked to. It’s a confusing thing to make sense of; the thought that he’s almost a whole day ahead of LA has him feeling like he’s standing on Earth upside down to everyone back home. But he knows he has to get a grip on things or else he’ll miss out on a vacation they had all worked so hard to make happen.

He leaves Lando to sleep a little longer while he gets himself ready, stubs his toe on the way to the bathroom which helps smack some wakefulness into him. He has a shower, forgets to watch the direction that the water goes down, but wouldn’t know the difference if he’d seen it in action anyway. Out of the shower, he spends an appropriate amount of time doing his hair, except when his appearance is up to scratch, he realises he only has about twenty minutes to get Lando ready and meet the others at…

“Wait,” Link falters, snatching his phone off the bedside table again, “What time is it?”

His phone reads 11.41am.

Link frowns. He pulls at his jeans so that he can kneel down and riffle through his suitcase for the itinerary that he had printed out. He runs his thumb along the time bars until he finds today’s date, only to move down a section a split second later when he remembers Australia is a day ahead. According to what he and Rhett had organised, they should all already be at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo.

Link’s mouth goes dry. Christy must have set the alarm wrong, or his phone hadn’t accounted for daylight savings, or he'd been doing his hair longer than he'd intended to. Whatever the reason, he has to get down there _now_. He rouses his son, then scoops him up and keys out of his room and into the kid’s room. It’s surprisingly orderly; somehow the kids can keep a better room in Australia than they do back home. He sets Lando down on the edge of a bed (not knowing which one is whose) and finds Lando’s suitcase by the fish tag attached on the handle.

Once he has Lando dressed, Lando won’t walk out the door without having a bathroom break. Link sits on the end of a bed, his fingers drumming his forearms, minutes ticking by. Surely they wouldn’t have gone without him, but he’s sure no one’s going to be happy with him being so late. When Lando’s shirt is tucked back in and hands are washed, he hurries Lando down the hall and into the glass elevator.

 

 

_[Sydney Tower Eye (or Centre Point Tower) - Sydney's tallest structure - Hyde Park view]_

 

As they travel down to the ground floor, Link tries to animate Lando by pointing out interesting things in the view. The old buildings encroached by shiny, silver skyscrapers. A large, pointy building that looks like a golden marshmallow on a stick is imprinted with large red words on one half of the cylindrical face which read ‘Westfield’. Neither do much to attract his son’s attention, and Link decides that after he asks the front desk for directions to the gallery, he’ll have to carry Lando to keep the speed going.

He follows the instructions he is given -- to essentially keep going straight ahead. He power walks out of the hotel foyer, across the street, underneath the bridge with trains rumbling across the tracks, and spots the yellow sandstone of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Out the front of the old building, people sit around tables shaded by large white canopies. Many have champagne in hand. Waiters hand out fancy dishes featuring bright pink prawns. Seagulls, and another species of bird that looks like an ibis, circle the area in search for their lunch.

On the other side of the sandstone building, a modern, dark gray building stands as an extension, to the gallery. A large cubic section comprised of mismatched cement, tiles and glass juts out over the entrance. Link holds Lando’s chin over his shoulder, hand on the back of fair hair as he makes his way toward the gallery, hastening when he thinks he hears his name being called. He looks around, scanning the boardwalk for sight of his family, but he doesn’t see anyone. He could have sworn he heard someone call out his name. Maybe it's a fan who has recognised him despite his sunglasses obscuring his face. He stops in front of the gallery and glances in through the glass doors. A large cement staircase leads upwards with bright colors painted along the steps.

He stands still, scanning the area, unable to spot a group of small children flanking two women and a very tall man. He awkwardly pats his pockets around a child in his arms, but realizes in that moment that he has not brought his phone with him. Too late to go back because he’s already too late. They must have gone without him.

He grits his teeth, dread welling within him. If he can’t find them, it’ll be a day with just him and Lando, and that will be fine, he supposes. It will give him extra time to get a grip on being in a new place which is… actually not that different from home. Suddenly someone practically barrels him over. He stumbles forward, making sure not to drop Lando, breath escaping him for a few moments before he can steady himself and see that it had been Lincoln who had bumped into him.

“Here,” Lincoln says, offering the sunglasses that had slid right off Link’s nose.

Link repositions Lando in his arms as he struggles to put the sunglasses back on one handed. WIth the prescription glasses on, he can more clearly see Lincoln looking up at him, his face red and shiny with sweat.

Lincoln says, “Come on, Dad! The ferry’s this way,” as he tugs on his father’s free arm.

Dazed, Link tags along. “Have ya’ll been waiting long?”

Lincoln nods. “Me and Locke have been waiting for ages.” Lincoln tugs on Link again, and begins to steer his father and younger brother along the wharf. “Hey Dad, can I have some more spending money?”

“What, why?”

“Mom told me to ask you since Locke made me buy him another burger. One of those [ black and white birds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4dYWhkSbTU) stole Locke’s first one, it was _so funny_!”

“Wait, so you’ve already had lunch?”

“Yep!” Lincoln says.

The closer they draw to the ferry station, the more relaxed Lando becomes in Link’s hold, his arms going slack around Link’s neck. Link stops on the boardwalk and rouses his son before lowering him to the ground. Lando’s getting too big to be carried anyway. Lando hangs his head resignedly, as if he could fall asleep standing.

“Come on, buddy,” Link says as he squats in front of his son. He can see the shadows of seagulls circling above them, hears the dull, hollow thud of the water hitting the underneath of the wharf. “Don’t you want to see a koala?”

Lando yawns, hands grabbing at the air above him. Link sighs. He stands up, and instead of lifting Lando into his arms again, he takes one of the kid’s hands and leads him along the path Lincoln had taken. When he rounds the wharf, the concentration of people seems to cluster around the ferry stations. There are people lined up to purchase tickets, many more to board the next ferry, and others sitting on benches waiting ahead of time. Link looks around again for Lincoln, having lost him just minutes before.

“Over here!” Lincoln calls out.

Link pulls Lando close to him and walks toward Lincoln’s voice, hooking his sunglasses over his shirt collar as he enters the shade of the station. Against the back wall he finds his families seated on a long, green bench. The kids have a map of the zoo spread out over the bench and are kneeling on the floor as they discuss the animals they want to see. Jessie and Christy sit either side of the map, their hands spread to the corners to keep it in place. Lando wakes up in a snap when he sees what his siblings and friends are doing, and joins the group huddled around the bench when Christy opens up a space.

Rhett, on the other hand, is lazing against the wall, eyes closed, but Link can tell that Rhett is stressed beneath that relaxed facade. He doesn’t acknowledge Link’s presence which annoys him slightly, but he thinks nothing of it when his wife comes up to him, a hand curling around his elbow as she gives him a kiss on the cheek.

“You made it,” She says with a warm smile. “You look a lot better, too.”

“Thanks, honey,” Link replies, “But shouldn’t we be lined up? Are they gonna accept nine late tickets?”

Christy frowns, tilting her head to one side, but before she says anything, Rhett’s the one to speak first. “You’re not late,” he says, eyes sliding open, chin lifted.

Christy nods, taking Link to sit down on the bench beside Rhett, and nestles in beside Link. “You’re perfectly on time,” she agrees.

“...But we were meant to already be at the zoo.”

“Don’t worry about it, we pushed the schedule ahead an hour,” Rhett says, closing his eyes again.

Link sits back. “I thought I was really late!”

At that moment, a ferry horn sounds, waves circulating so loudly that no one can hear each other’s conversations unless they start shouting. An announcement sounds over the speakers ushering people who have bought tickets for that ferry to begin boarding when the guard signals. Soon, the rumbling stops and a couple of ramps are extended onto the wharf. Luckily the chatter of people is loud enough to obscure the sound of Link’s rumbling stomach.

“So where’d you guys go for lunch?” He asks, “Do you think I could grab something quick before our ferry comes?”

Jessie perks up. “Yes! I am _starving_!”

“Lincoln told me you guys had lunch already,” Link says.

“No, he and Locke did since they got bored with the gallery pretty quick,” Christy explains.

Link nods. “Right, so I’m _not_ late _and_ I haven’t missed out on lunch. You guys just moved the meeting place to throw me off?”

Christy glances over at the group of children, then back to her husband. “Lily has an embargo on anyone leaving. She’s very excited to see the animals.”

“Aw but me and Lando haven’t eating anything today. I’m just gonna get something from the McDonalds again. It was so quick, and actually pretty decent yesterday.”

“It was, huh,” Jessie agrees, her eyes alight with hunger.

“I’ll get us all something, what do ya’ll—”

Lily sits up and calls out, “Dad! You can’t leave! You’ll get lost!”

“I won’t get lost,” Link says, rather offended.

“Dad!” She whines, “ _Please_ , don’t wander off!”

Link frowns, but he sits down again. “Don’t you guys wanna eat? How about ya’ll go get something and I’ll keep our spot here?”

“No one’s leaving!” Lily cries.

“I’m not getting up,” Rhett clarifies, holding his palms up in protest against a very bossy fourteen year old girl.

“I don’t want to miss them feeding the Tasmanian Devils!” Lily adds.

Link blinks in surprise, remembering how much Lily had cried when she had seen an owl eat its baby on a documentary one time. “You want to see that?” He turns to Christy for confirmation, and she nods sagely. “What’s a Tasmanian Devil anyway? It sounds like a monster animal.”

“It doesn’t sound very cute,” Rhett agrees, keeping his eyes shut as he fans himself with a brochure.

“Alright,” Jessie says, getting to her feet, “How about Christy and I bring us back some lunch. Is that okay, Lily?”

Lily nods, much to Link’s dismay. He crosses his arms. “I could have done it.”

He watches as Christy stands up and lets Jessie hook their arms together as they walk off into the crowd, blonde and brown hair flowing in the ocean breeze. A fly gets in front of his face, buzzing around until he swats it away, which turns his attention to his best friend. Rhett’s leaning his head against the wall, a brochure in hand gusting gentle puffs of air across his pink face. He supposes Rhett thought he would be getting a nice Australian tan on this vacation to rival Link’s, but Rhett is more prone to sunburns than tanning.

Rhett must feel eyes on him because he straightens his posture and opens his eyes, giving Link a side glare that sends an unsettling shiver down his spine.

“You good, brother?” Link asks, a quick touch of his arm, wary of how many pairs of eyes (and lenses of cameras) that may be operating in the area.

Rhett runs through a series of actions. First, he flinches, then a shake of his head, a wrinkle in his nose, then he seems to relax. “Yeah man, it’s just hot. How about you? You seem better.”

Link presses his lips together. “I’ve been a fool, Rhett.”

“A fool!” Rhett repeats nonchalantly.

“A fool,” Link says, “I should’ve taken the sleeping pill with Christy when she offered. I can’t remember _anything_ about yesterday except being grumpy, probably.”

Rhett laughs, that deep, reverberating laughter that never fails to pull a smile out of those who hear it. “You’re a good sleeper normally.”

“I am. I could be asleep right now!”

Rhett gives him a once over with his eyes. “You’re feeling better though?”

“Yes.”

“Ready to go to the zoo?” Rhett asks, his voice rising, his eyes widening.

“I surely am,” Link says in a forced accent.

Rhett cringes. “No, see, that was cockney. Don’t do that.”

“You’re much better at it than me.”

“I am, but it hurts my throat. I can’t do it for very long.”

Link raises his eyebrows.

“Don’t say it,” Rhett warns, then leans in close and whispers, “Save it for tomorrow night.”

Link blushes deeply. Thankfully the heat of the day might be convincing enough to explain away the deep red on his face when Christy and Jessie arrive back with a family meal. The contents are handed out to everyone. An aroma of grease and salt and warm, ocean water colludes in their vicinity. When most of them are only halfway through eating their meals, they hear the sound of the ferry’s horn.

“Don’t think we’re meant to bring food on board,” Rhett says, ushering everyone to quickly scoff down what they can before they board the ferry.

 

-

 

 

_[Taronga Zoo - the giraffes seriously have the best view]_

 

Rhett keeps his distance, for now. Remains chivalrous, amicable, and like he hadn’t spent the morning before his alarm was due to go off on his cell researching homesickness and culture shock and sleep deprivation and _worrying_ about Link. Getting himself stuck in a cyclical thought process of thinking that everything would go badly with Link’s mood swing marking the tipping point for disaster. That someone _would_ go missing, that someone would get hurt, that they’d have to cut the vacation short.

Jessie has known him long enough to know that he gets obsessive about the smallest things, and perhaps she’d hoped that coming into their room in the morning to discuss what they were going to do with Link would burn his ears enough to wake him up.

“The best thing we can do is let him keep sleeping,” Christy had suggested over breakfast.

Rhett had put down his spoon full of cereal. “It’s not good for him to keep sleeping.”

“He needs to catch up with sleep before he can break into a new sleep schedule,” Christy had reasoned.

“We all do,” Jessie had said, “Link’s just the last person who we thought would have trouble with it.”

“I don’t think it’s just trouble sleeping…” Rhett had said.

“Honey, we can’t know until he wakes up, but I agree with Christy. We should let him sleep as long as possible.”

Rhett had raised his eyebrow. “The whole day?”

“No, the kids will want him to be with them today,” Christy had said, then added, “I do too.”

Jessie had suggested, “How about we meet him after the gallery?”

“Will that be long enough?” Rhett had asked.

“We’ll have to see.”

He should be relieved when Link turns up essentially fine, as if yesterday had been an element of Link’s opinionative nature to be decidedly irritable and that all he needed to get over that was a good night’s sleep. Rhett should be happy that it’s over with. He should be happy with the time that they get together and the time that he gets with everyone being together, but God help him if he feels a little selfish.

Lily wants to see the Tasmanian Devils which requires splitting up the McLaughlins and the Neals and it’s a whole thing with the kids but in the end they go their separate ways. It’s good. It’s a _good thing_ to be separate, to have unique experiences which he and Link can share on the show, and most of the time Rhett is fine with that. He loves his family and loves his wife and loves his alone time too. But he loves Link… _so_ much. And sometimes having to be separate from Link is the _hardest part_ of the lives that they’ve made together, because he doesn’t get the time, or the space, to love Link in a way that works for both of them.

So he knows he shouldn’t feel selfish, or feel like their time together is slipping away, all because he _wants_ Link. He’s trying to be sensible, to be logical, like Link, because they’ve all made commitments to each other and they’ve all worked so hard to have the stability that they have in their relationships. But… he can’t help but feel like the time they have secured for themselves isn’t going to last. It’s making him antsy. Making him want to place blame when there’s no one at fault. Wants Link to be more responsive, wants Link to look at him and give him everything, wanting Link to fuck him. Rhett huffs as he lifts Shepherd on his shoulders, worried about stressing his back, and forces the thoughts about how badly he wants to be fucked as far away as he can. Don’t think about it, don’t think about it now.

“Hold on! Let me get ya’ll in the picture,” Jessie calls out as she steps backward with her cell phone in hand.

The Bolivian Squirrel Monkey is hanging from a tree branch by its tail, and has his paws pressed against the glass near the glass ceiling of the enclosure. Shepherd should be able to look the monkey eye to eye from this position, his palms pressed on the outside glass opposite the monkey’s.

“Dad, its eyes are going really big!”

“Shep, look this way,” Jessie says, “Smile!”

Rhett pivots incrementally in order to face the camera, but just as he does, the monkey shifts down and starts to do something, well, natural but completely unexpected. Rhett doesn’t think that Shepherd can see from his angle which only makes it more amusing for him.

“Jessie, please tell me you got that.”

 

-

 

They could spend the whole afternoon there if they could, but the Australian summer dictates a subscription to the sea, and a visit to Bondi Beach is essential for any tourist visiting Sydney. Thankfully the air conditioning in the hotel helps with the mental maths Link attempts doing when he sees the kids going through their hauls on their beds. On each are various items bought from Taronga Zoo and the art gallery; books, plush toys, and other little souvenirs. Link had sworn they had all decided on a spending limit for the children, but somehow, with the items laid out like this, it seems like they spent a lot more than they should have. After abandoning attempting to work out the cost, his mind flies through the logistics of travelling with this much stuff considering it’s only their second day of the vacation.

“I think we bought too much,” He states as he sits down on Lily’s bed. A book on Australian animals slides down the dipped mattress and he pushes it back in her pile.

“Are you kidding?” Rhett says as he picks up a plush toy of a Platypus, “Look at this thing! I can’t believe that it’s a real animal!”

“Looks kind of like an otter to me,” Link says with an air of indifference.

“No it doesn’t!” Lincoln laughs.

“Right? Do otters have _beaks_?” Rhett questions Link.

“The platypus is my favourite animal now,” Lily gushes, prying the plush toy out of Rhett’s hands.

“What about the Tasmanian Devils?” Christy asks, “They were actually cuter than I imagined.”

“Still kind of scary though,” Link points out.

Lily shrugs. “The Devils were cute but the Platypus is way cooler.” She picks up the book and starts reading out [facts](https://taronga.org.au/animal/platypus). “Listen to this. ‘European naturalists and scientists believed that the Platypus was an elaborate hoax. They thought that a trickster had sewn many different animals together.’ It also says that they’re a…. Monotreme,which is a group of mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live babies!”

Rhett turns to Link, wide eyed, and repeats, “ _It lays eggs_ . Man, Australian animals are _so_ cool.”

“The Echidna is another mammal that lays eggs,” Locke says as he reads the book that Lily has over her shoulder.

“Oh yeah? That’s the hedgehog looking thing, right?” Rhett asks.

Link makes a disgruntled noise.

“Yeah, but hedgehogs don’t lay eggs,” Lily says.

From the edge of Locke’s bed, Jessie asks, “What about you Shepherd, what was your favourite animal at the zoo?”

From the floor, Shepherd looks up at his father, both of them sharing a devious look. Shepherd makes as if he’s about to deliver his answer before Rhett comes crashing to the ground to tackle his son with tickles.

“Oh, ho, ho,” Rhett laughs as he rolls around with his son, trying not to kick anyone in the face as he does so. He stops tickling Shepherd and, with his laughter subsiding, he pulls his son into his lap. The two of them share a short whispered conversation, but Rhett’s deep voice gives some of it away. “What were you gonna say… oh no, don’t say that… what about the… yeah say that.”

“What’s going on?” Link asks with a smile.

Rhett shares a grin with Jessie, then looks down at Shepherd bouncing from trying to keep his laughter contained.

“Come on, kiddo, we wanna save the story for later.”

“Is it really appropriate to say on GMM?” Jessie questions.

“We’ve said and done _worse_ ,” Rhett chuckles, “Okay Shep, say what your favourite animal is.”

“Emu!”

Link taps a finger against his chin. “Oh yeah, and why’s that?”

“Because… it’s big, and...” Shepherd looks at the carpet for a moment, then says, “It’s not a monkey!”

“Right, right,” Link taps his chin again in dramatic thoughtfulness.

“Locke sent me the video already,” Lincoln clues him in, “Do you want --”

“--Hey, hey, that’s enough,” Rhett says.

“Will Daddy see a Kangaroo?” Lando asks Christy as he plays with an animal themed puzzle they’d bought him from the zoo.

On the floor with Lando, Christy says, “We saw some today, sweetie.”

“Will he see a Kangaroo on Mount Couscous?”

Christy stifles laughter. “Link,” She says, grabbing her husband’s attention away from the main conversation, “ _Mount Couscous_.”

 

-

 

**Bondi Beach**

Once everyone’s refreshed, they each put on their swimsuits and sunblock and go to catch a bus to Bondi Beach for the evening. By the time they arrive at the beach, it’s about 5pm, but the sun is still very warm. The parents decide to have dinner later and commandeer the children into the water. Christy and Jessie only jump in for a few minutes before returning to the spot they were able to claim on the sand, leaving the rest of the Neals and McLaughlins to float in the waves.

The beach itself isn’t particularly exquisite. Being a tourist destination, it’s quite crowded, with trash littered over the sand and dog poop here and there like many other popular beaches back home. Link had heard Rhett promising that the beaches will be more beautiful when they go on the Great Ocean Road. For now, they’re relieved enough to be able to cool down in the ocean from their long, hot day.

 

 

_[Bondi Beach]_

 

The sun lowers on the horizon, the rays playing off bright sparkles across the rolling waves. He and Rhett take turns while one takes part in playing games with the boys and Lily, while the other makes sure the young ones don’t swim too far out -- as they have a habit of doing. Lifeguards prowl the beach in red and yellow, there’s even a film crew moving along the shoreline. Link worries for a moment that the film crew are here to film him and Rhett -- that they might expose his friendship as something more than two close friends taking their families to a beach, because _they’re on the other side of the world together_ . (Later he finds comfort in discovering the Australian TV show called _Bondi Rescue_ ). For now, he reassures himself by thinking that it’s not like it’s just the two of them -- Rhett and himself --  though he hopes sometime in the future, it can be just that. Just the two of them traversing the Australian landscape on a month or two long 4x4 adventure.

For now, he really has nothing to worry about. In a way, being here as a family is a safety net, so long as the kids stay safe from harm too. That’s his 24/7 job, to keep his family safe, keep them fed when they’re hungry, keep them cool when they’re hot, keep them entertained and happy, and loved. And he supposes sky diving nose first into another realm threw him off, because he feels as if he’s not holding up to the last part enough. Not showing Christy enough love, not enough admiration for making it through the longest flight in the world despite being scared of flying, not appreciating her enough for looking after the kids, not appreciating her enough for putting up with him and giving him the time of day.

He rises with a passing wave, seaweed wriggling passed his legs that he pays no mind to because he’s thinking of how he’s going to tell Christy what’s on his mind. He imagines exactly what he’s going to say and knows exactly how it’s going to fall apart when he holds her in his arms because she makes him silly after all these years, still makes his mind melt and mind vomit and he’s going to sound utterly unromantic and she’s going to know what he means anyway.

Another wave rocks over his body and an image of her sunbathing on the beach sneaks into his mind.

“Link!”

She’s probably up there on the beach now, legs stretched out on a towel, sun hat shading her face, her blonde hair about her shoulders. He can’t remember what swimsuit she had worn beneath her dress, but he imagines a red one piece, practical but sexy, and thinks about his wife in more ways than this while he’s meant to be keeping watch of the boys in the water.

“LINK!”

Link only snaps out of his reverie when he feels Rhett’s arm locking around his shoulders and pulling him into the sea. Blue to blue, air to water, but the cold of the ocean hadn’t been quick or powerful enough to quell the heat his imaginations had stirred. Granted, he hadn’t expected Rhett to wrestle with him in the water, and he can tell Rhett hadn’t expected to knock his knees against Link’s boner by the way he suddenly pulls them both to the surface.

Link gasps for air, his cock smarting from being bumped, and there’s a stillness between them. Salty water dribbling off his eyelids and lips. Rhett frozen in his grip on Link’s shoulders, something dark in his eyes that Link can’t fully perceive with the setting sun behind his best friend.

Then, a change comes over Rhett and he lets go of Link. He splashes backward, long legs letting him reach the bottom as he wades back to the kids. “Change of plan, it’s my turn again!”

“Aw, it’s Link’s turn!” Locke complains.

“Yeah! I want Dad to play this round!” Lincoln says.

“You just want him to play this round because I’m too good.”

“I thought parents were meant to let their kids win!” Lily says.

Rhett laughs. “Oh, is someone a sore loser?”

With Rhett’s heat drifting away in the water, Link sinks until the ocean licks into his ears. He listens to the noise of the beach. The waves crashing, the seagulls squawking, children laughing and splashing and he’s the first to notice Jessie waving at the shore a half hour later.

It’s difficult to get the children out and collected in one spot in a timely manner. They hadn’t meant to stay out too late, the sunset well on its way. Luckily the restaurant Jessie had found on Yelp hasn’t shut yet, and they’re able to try the recommended chicken at a franchise which began in Bondi, called Oporto’s.

 

 

_[Sunset at Bondi Beach ft. lump of seaweed]_

 

All nine of them sit on the steps which lead down to the beach, food in hand as they chat and watch the last rays of the sun slip away beneath the oncoming night. By the time they arrive back at the hotel, the moon is high and everyone’s ready to go to bed, except no one older than Shepherd is allowed to when Locke thinks he has lost his wallet. Christy tucks the younger boys in while the others spend some time looking in each room, in the hallway, in the elevator too. Still no luck, so they decide to retrace their steps which means going back to the bus stop, only when Link, Lincoln and Locke are halfway to the stop, they get a group chat message announcing that Lily has found that the wallet had fallen between Locke’s bed and the bedside table.

Relieved, they turn back to the hotel, only before Link steps in the elevator with the boys Lincoln, he gets a private message from Rhett saying ‘Stairwell’.

Link gets in the elevator and texts back ‘? Wallet found’.

A minute later, Rhett’s reply reads, ‘Meet me in the stairwell’.

Link frowns. He makes sure the boys go back to their room, then walks back to the elevators to find the door to the stairwell. The heavy door compresses slowly to a close behind him, zipping the sliver of fresh air into the stuffy tower of air stuck in the stairwell. It smells strongly of cement, as if the structure had set yesterday. He grips onto the rails and looks down the many flights of stairs beneath him. No sight of Rhett. He pulls out his cell and messages Rhett to ask him where he is. He receives short instructions to go three flights up. When he does, he finds Rhett brooding in the corner, the fluorescent light accentuating his eyebags.

“Hey man, it’s all good, Lily found the wallet,” Link says as he approaches his friend.

In a surprisingly swift motion, Rhett lurches from the corner and pins Link against the cement wall. Link’s back presses flat against the wall, a soundless movement of shock falling out of his lungs in a short puff of air. He looks up into Rhett’s eyes shaded by furrowed brows. Then, Rhett tilts his head to nip a portion of Link’s neck between his teeth, hot breath swirling across Link’s collarbone.

Link closes his eyes. “We shouldn’t do this.”

“What were you thinking?” Rhett asks, voice hushed in a gruff whisper.

“What was I thinking…” Link repeats, not sure what Rhett’s referring to.

“In the water,” Rhett prompts.

He teeths the skin around Link’s throat, then sucks, at which point Link nudges Rhett’s head away. He sends Rhett a stern look, only to have his lips met with Rhett’s. Rhett kisses hard, hungry, like he does after a show where they push the limits of how close they’re willing to get in front of the camera. Push it all the way behind the scenes in their office, doors locked, music on -- a whole lot more privacy than a public stairwell.

Link’s fingertips tingle as he pulls away again, lifts his chin in defiance, eyes squinting, but Rhett’s doing almost the same thing and it’s probably meant to look foreboding but it only makes him look smouldering.

“We have to go see our wives off,” Link says, doesn’t mean to choke on his words, but does anyway. “I want to see Jess--Christy!”

Rhett raises one eyebrow. “You just said Jessie.”

“I want to see my wife,” Link says more firmly.

Rhett lowers his eyes, Link feels his gaze not on his lips; lower. Then, Rhett’s pressing their bodies together, a gasp falling out of Link’s mouth as he feels Rhett’s cock against his hip. The next thing he knows, Rhett’s smashing their lips together again, kissing hard, breathy, makes his mind go blank. It’s just wet lips moving, swim shorts tightening, huffing and panting and lightheadedness in the heat of it all.  Rhett’s moustache tickles - as it always does - but this time it doesn’t smell of hair product, it smells of salt and chicken and when Rhett grinds against him slowly, Link’s certain there’s a bucket full of sand still in his swim shorts by the way the small grains rub against his skin amidst the friction.

“Did you see Jessie’s swimsuit?” Rhett questions him between the kisses he takes to Link’s neck, a hand pulling the fabric of Link’s t-shirt down to expose more of his collarbone.

Link breathes heavy, chest rising and falling. Rhett must hear how loud his heart is beating. “I wasn’t looking.”

“I liked it,” Rhett comments, breath over Link’s heart, hand curled around Link’s hip. “She doesn’t wear two pieces often.”

“Are you making me sexualise your wife?”

Rhett doesn’t answer, so Link plays his fingers through the ruff of hair on the back of Rhett’s neck. Rhett’s guiding his hips, hitching down to press their crotches together, eyes fluttering, a strangled gasp when Rhett lifts his mouth to hover just in front of Link’s lips.

“Christy looked--”

Before Rhett can finish his sentence, LInk deftly grabs Rhett’s shoulders and switches their positions, pressing Rhett against the wall with a thud. Rhett blinks in surprise, his mouth dropping, and he goes to say something but at that moment, somewhere below them, a stairwell door opens. Without hesitation, Link covers Rhett’s mouth with his hand while Rhett places his hands on Link’s hips, keeping them both locked in place. The noise of the door zipping shut skips up the stairs, and Link presses in close to Rhett, hand clamping Rhett’s mouth securely shut, bodies flush, cocks throbbing even as the footsteps rise.

Then, another door opens and the air falls stagnant again, quiet, but no less filled with the echoes of their breathing coming in frustrated heaves. Link doesn’t take his eyes off Rhett. Feels Rhett’s nose huffing warm air over the top side of his palm, Rhett’s wet lips and tips of his moustache tickling his palm.

“You wanna think about my wife?” Link asks tersely.

Rhett huffs beneath Link’s hand, a noise that sounds louder lower in his body than when it bounces off Link’s hand against his lips, cut off when Link cups Rhett’s cock. Rhett’s fingers grip onto Link’s hips, his joints feeling hot and weightless as Link strokes Rhett’s cock straining beneath the fabric.

“This is a conversation, Rhett, don’t let me be the only one to talk,” Link says, his hand still over Rhett’s mouth.

Rhett growls, the sound vibrating through him, Link’s chin lifting, eye connection unwavering.

“We ought to show appreciation to our wives,” Link pauses to stroke Rhett’s cock teasingly, “Before we have ourselves.”

Rhett retracts one hand from Lin’s hips and brushes aside the hand clamped over his mouth. He curves down, tries to kiss Link again and gets about two seconds of bliss before Link backs off. Hands off. A foot between them.

Link squints up at his best friend. Jaw set. He questions, accusatory, “What are _you_ thinking?”

“I want you,” Rhett says, husky, lips red.

Link tuts. “We agreed--”

“Do you not remember last night?” Rhett snaps.

Link holds his breath, frowning.

“Man, I thought it was about making you feel better, about making sure that you were okay,” Rhett says, licking his lips, “But I needed that too. I miss you.”

Link closes his eyes when he hears the last part. The air around him stifling. When he opens his eyes again, Rhett looks softer. Link reaches out, tentatively runs his fingers over Rhett’s forearm and when Rhett leans into the touch, he pulls the man in for a hug.

Link presses his cheek against Rhett’s chest, over his heart. “I’m sorry, brother.”

Rhett wraps his arms around Link, holds him tight, dicks softening, hearts warming.

“We built this…” Link begins to ramble, “...This life that we have. Our jobs, our marriage, our family. We have to make all aspects work without exploiting the sacrifices our partners are willing to make.”

Rhett pauses, and when he speaks, Link can hear the voice rumbling against his ear. “I had you first.”

Link looks up at Rhett. “It’s not about that.” He searches for something in Rhett’s eyes and sees honesty, sincerity, sees the love and the want, but he also sees that Rhett understands.

He cups Rhett’s face with one hand, wiry beard under his palm, middle and forefinger on Rhett’s cheek, thumb on his soft lips. “Hey, I love you.”

Rhett turns his lips against Link’s thumb, a minute kiss, then says, “They’re probably wondering where we are.”

Relieved that Rhett seems to be on the same page, Link goes to give Rhett’s softening cock a farewell squeeze, but Rhett holds him back. He lifts his chin so that Link can’t read his expression. “Don’t tease me now.” He sounds hurt, for a moment, before he adds, “Save it for tomorrow.”

Link holds Rhett’s hand as they make their way down the stairs back toward their level, the sounds of their footsteps echoing every which way. Before they exit the stairwell, Link makes Rhett a promise. “The next few days, I’m going to treat you so good.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you're enjoying it so far! i'm having a lot of fun writing it. please let me know what you think, or share your similar experiences, or what you think i should work on. i'm happy to make changes if it fits :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gosh i'm so sorry that it's been almost a month since the last update. i had a lot of trouble finishing the second half of the chapter, plus it was getting to be far too long so i decided to split it up. i s2g this fic was never meant to be this long but here we are. 
> 
> hope you like it :)

**Day 3: near Crackenback**

Link gives Christy a peck on the cheek before hugging his children goodbye. He’s only going to be away from his family for two nights, which isn’t unusual. Many times he and Rhett have been absent from their families for consecutive nights, albeit less so in the last two years. Now, however, they do not have the safety net of being in their home country, which means if something goes wrong… Well, flexibility isn’t something that they can rely on. Of course, Link knows that Christy and Jessie will try to make sure the kids stay out of trouble, but a Dad can be worried, can’t he?

Just as he wraps his arms around Lily, she cringes and recoils with a very dramatic, “EW!”

Link frowns. “Ew?” Then he looks over his shoulder and sees his best friend passionately making out with Jessie in Sydney’s domestic airport terminal. Jokingly, Link tells Rhett to get a room, but his friend ignores the comment, optioning to leave Jessie breathless and onlookers averting their eyes. When Link hugs Jessie goodbye, he can hear her heart pounding, her trembling hands press warmly against his back.

“Sort him out, will you?” She whispers in Link’s ear, then slinks beside Christy when she parts with him.

Rhett’s already making his way to board the plane, leaving Link to trail in behind him. Just before he leaves the terminal, he gives one last look at his family. The kids uncaring, playing on their devices. The wives with their hands enveloped together, Jessie taking her turn in whispering something into Christy’s ear, a wan look on his wife’s face.

Christy might not be in a good mood, but he thinks she’s content. The night before they had both been too tired to do anything but lay in each other’s arms and fall asleep together. In the early morning, she hadn’t had much to say, but hadn’t minded Link playing with her hair, softly caressing her lightly sun kissed face. Whatever Jessie is saying to his wife coaxes a smile out on Christy’s face and, he thinks they’ll be alright. Hopes that they will be. Knows that there won’t be much he can do if things go awry so all he can do is trust and have faith.

The plane to the Snowy Mountains looks like it will be the smallest one he’ll ever fly on, even smaller than the ones they fly from LA to the Raleigh-Durham airport. Unfortunately for a very uncharacteristically quiet Rhett, the size of the plane means that it isn’t possible to upgrade to first class for more leg room because the first class section doesn’t offer any improved amenities aside from being positioned closer to the exit. Link suspects that’s why Rhett’s being weird. There’s a noticeable distance between them, fortified only by Rhett. It doesn’t add up. By all accounts, it appears as if Rhett and Jessie had a good night. Plus, the six other passengers on the plane seemed to not recognise who they were, which means that something as small as hand holding or something as big as a kiss on the lips shouldn’t be out of the question in the insulated safe space of the plane. Link chalks Rhett’s brusqueness up to him being uncomfortable during the hour long flight, and thinks nothing more of it until the behaviour continues after they disembark.

They’re the only passengers who brought luggage, so they don’t have to enter the terminal and wait for the conveyer belt system to cycle their luggage into view. Looking at the size of the airport though, Link’s doubtful that they don’t just unload the luggage from the plane directly to the passengers every time. After collecting what’s theirs, they wheel their bags over to the car rental company adjacent to the airport. Rhett’s unsettlingly silent the whole while. Link’s ears are filled with the thunderous sound of small plastic wheels rolling along concrete.

“All good, your international driver’s license checks out. Sure youse want a 4 Wheel Drive but?” The attendant asks, “If youse aren’t planning on taking it off-road, there are heaps cheaper models to choose from.”

“We’re going to be taking on the Great Ocean Road in a couple of days so we’ll need the driving practice,” Rhett says to the attendant, his composure stiff, eyes locked on the attendant as if looking elsewhere may cause him physical harm.

“No worries.”

After signing the papers, they wait for the attendant to bring forward the 4x4. Link sits in a row of plastic chairs and watches Rhett run through some stretches, cringing along with Rhett as he sees how much it hurts to relieve the stress in his muscles.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive?” Link double checks.

“Nope,” Rhett says as he lifts his arms over his head. Fingers locked together, arms straight, his printed shirt revealing a sliver of his abdomen.

Link licks his lips. “I’m gonna need practice too.”

Rhett doesn’t say anything, just keeps stretching his sore muscles until the attendant brings around a silver Jeep. Rhett collects the keys and follows the attendant to the driver’s side. Link only hears snippets of the conversation while he packs their luggage into the trunk, something about advice regarding the gears to take on their route, the placement of important vehicle functions, and warnings about curious wildlife.

“If youse go bush walking, better watch out for drop bears. Them beasts will attack any unsuspecting traveller,” The attendant says as a precursor to leaving the two Americans wondering why they have signed up for a vacation in a country with the most concentration of deadly animals.

 

-

 

The GPS drops out twenty minutes along their course to their accommodation. They have to pull over in Berridale and rifle through the glove box and backseat pockets before they can find a directory. Link opens the book up in his lap, running his fingers over the curved edges of the pages which makes the page numbers unreadable. While Link triangulates their position, Rhett goes in search for breakfast and returns with bacon and egg rolls from a corner store. Link is dubious, but the bacon smells good and turns out that the only bad thing about it is that barbeque sauces sticks to his fingers.

“Did you get any wet wipes?” He asks Rhett, watching his friend lick his own sticky fingers one by one.

Rhett shakes his head, then starts the ignition.

“Where am I headed?” Rhett asks, and it might be the first question Rhett has asked him all morning.

Link licks his lips, catching a morsel of sauce as he does so. “We’re on, uh, the-name-of-the-mountain Road. Just follow it until I tell you to turn.”

Rhett nods, then pulls the car onto the road. Link tries not to look straight ahead because it’s too weird that he’s sitting on the left side of the car and he doesn’t have the steering wheel in front of him and the pedals underneath his feet. On top of that, he keeps having heart palpitations each time an oncoming car approaches because he instinctively thinks that they’re on the wrong side of the road and that they’ll crash, until the opposing car slips by on his right.

His fingers are still covered in barbeque sauce so he decides to lick the sauce off too, then rolls down the window once they’re clean and lets the countryside air dry him off. The lack of GPS is a problem. Their Airbnb host gave them very specific instructions to access their accommodation, details which Link had included in his itinerary, but it’s possible that if there’s no GPS, there might not be any internet connection either.

“You brought the hotspot thingy, right?” Link asks Rhett.

“Mmmhmm,” Rhett answers without taking his eyes off the road.

“Have you tested it?”

“Can’t know if it works ‘til we get there,” Rhett replies flatly.

It’s not what Link wants to hear, and it irks him that Rhett hadn’t added ‘man’ or ‘brother’ on the end, so he distracts himself with the picturesque views. They drive along the dammed Snowy River, Lake Jindabyne sparkling under the morning sun, and after slowing down for passing through the town, they take a steady incline up Alpine Way. He wonders which one is meant to be the tallest mountain. They all look relatively similar in height, and all look more like hills than mountains.

 

[ _Lake Jindabyne at sunrise, from Kosciuszko Rd._ ]

 

In a way he’s -- well, not disappointed, but _surprised_ , that the kids didn’t want to see one of Australia’s iconic natural sights. He understands, though, that the elevation Mt Kosciuszko boasts is nothing aspirational, and that the others were more inclined to do the more attractive activities he and Rhett had planned for them. A purposeful move, and one that he’s been looking forward to the most – aside from off-roading on the Great Ocean Road of course. That’s when the others will be able to experience Australia’s natural beauties. The Great Ocean Road, then Uluru, and finishing off with the Great Barrier Reef.

Comparatively, the others aren’t going to miss out on much by passing up the Mt Kosciuszko hike. But perhaps the most important part of this two man detour is that he’ll get to spend time with Rhett. Just the two of them indulging in an authentic Australian experience. Early on they planned on renting an Airbnb cabin nestled into the side of the Great Dividing Range rather than the high end tourist destinations such as Thredbo or Perisher Blue. It’s an option they’re more capable of taking without seven other people to be mindful of, and it would only really be viable if the others weren’t interested.

Link was so sure that someone – the kids, the wives – would protest their separation. He didn’t face any disagreements, instead, he was getting a disquiet Rhett. A strange thing to encounter considering the hunger he’d expressed the evening before.

“Hey,” Link decidedly questions, “Are you good, brother?”

Rhett presses his lips thin. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

Rhett then switches on the radio and cycles through some stations until he finds something easy on the ears.

Link folds his arms. He can tell when his best friend is lying. “Seriously, what’s with you, man? Has something happened? Have I _done_ something to upset you?”

“It’s—”

“STOP!” Link cries.

Rhett’s eyes go wide as he slams his foot on the brake.

“Hey, hold on there! You went passed it! What’s that letterbox say?”

Rhett kicks the car into reverse and winds back to the letterbox. Link squints to read the number on it.

“Yeah, this is it,” Link says.

Rhett looks down the road that leads away from the letterbox, an unsealed road which curves away into a thicket of gum trees. “Here?”

Link reads over the directions he had printed in the itinerary again. “Turn on the road marked by the letterbox 65, then follow the dirt road for approximately 15 minutes.”

Rhett tuts, but he takes the car over the cattle grid at the threshold of the driveway anyway. “I feel like this is where we’re going to die.”

Link is in the middle of winding up the window so the dust doesn’t billow into the car and he laughs too loudly when he registers what Rhett has said, not expecting him to spark conversation. “You think that?”

“Yeah, man. I’m having some _Wolf Creek_ vibes here.”

“Wolf creek?”

“Yeah,” Rhett says. He pauses before elaborating as he puts the car into low gear to take it easy with the loose gravel on the road. “It’s an Australian movie, I know you haven’t seen it because you don’t like horror movies.”

“Right, I’m seeing the connection. Is that why you wanted to come here?”

“Yeah, I wanted to come to Australia to get murdered.”

“Now that would be something to talk about on the show.”

“Us getting murdered?” Rhett laughs.

Link looks at his best friend when he laughs, loves the sound of it, loves the way Rhett’s cheeks rise and dimple. He’s probably overthinking things. He can’t think of a reasonable explanation for why Rhett might be angry with him anyway.

“No, the host is only going to get you,” Link says with a smile.

“Oh, you think _you’ll_ be the one who’ll live to tell the tale?”

“Yeah, I’ll _easily_ find a way to escape.”

“If I die, who will tell my side of the story where you _abandon_ me to save your own skin,” Rhett jokes.

“I was thinking more….” Link frowns thoughtfully, “… like you’d heroically sacrifice yourself for me.”

Rhett smiles. A quick glance at Link. “Alright, if you abandon me to get murdered by this Airbnb Trevor guy, then I give you permission to call me a hero. But we both know that I’m going to be the one who’ll survive.”

Rhett drives through the thicket of trees. The gums arch and form a sparse canopy over the road, the sun peeks through the slivers of green leaves and casts shafts of light across the passage. Spotlights shine on collections of loose rock, dried leaves, and animal droppings before dancing off the silver hood.

Link says quietly, but firmly, “For the record, I would never abandon you.”

He reaches over and since Rhett doesn’t flinch away, he gives Rhett’s thigh a little squeeze. He would leave his hand there if the road wasn’t so bumpy. After a few minutes of slowly winding the car through the tree banked road, the thickets recede to reveal paddocks either side of the barbed wire fences. Thick, spikey looking shrubbery dots the fencing, and where the shrubbery isn’t blocking the view, Link can see that firebreaks run along the perimeter of the paddocks. The vegetation has been ripped out where the soil is upturned, light brown soil turned dark like a flipped patty.

Link covers his nose with the back of his palm when he catches whiff of the cow manure mixing with the cycled air. As the road begins to rise around the hill, the smell fades. As they curve around the slope, loose rocks kicking out behind the car, Link spots the cabin nestled into the hillside. It’s an almost identical image compared to the one they saw online when looking for accommodation close to the Mt Kosciuszko summit walk. If anything, the reality makes it look even more picturesque, with the recent summer rain strengthening the greens.

Another cattle grid lies before the path that leads to the cabin. Rhett takes the wheels over a little too roughly, the frame of the car wobbling with the suspension. A dog leaps off from the veranda of the cabin and pelts across the yard, then circles the strange vehicle, gnashing its teeth at the wheels. Link rolls his window down and just as he does so, he hears a man’s voice yelling at the dog to come back.

“Get out of it, you mongrel!” Presumably Trevor, yells as he climbs out of a dirty pickup truck. “In the ute, boy!”

The dog, an Australian German Shepherd, whimpers at the command, but obediently bounds into the tray of the man’s vehicle. Rhett parks the 4x4 a few yards away from the cabin. Link is already out of the car and walking toward the man before Rhett is able to unfold himself from the driver’s seat.

Trevor introduces himself to Link, a firm handshake, the kind that rattles all of his bones. Then, as most people do, Trevor’s eyes widen and his mouth drops in shock when he sees Rhett approaching them. 

“Streuth, you’re a tall bloke! You a basketballer?”

With some of the words lost on him, Link focuses on the second half of the second and shakes his head in response.

“Bet you would’ve been a bloody good one,” Trevor says, still in awe with Rhett’s height as he shakes Rhett’s hand. “Well come on then, I’ll show you around the place.”

Link follows Trevor, Rhett two steps behind. Which is fair – they don’t know what this guy is like or if he’s suspicious about two guys who have booked a double bed in a secluded cabin. Link had talked about their family while messaging the host, so as far as Link is aware, Trevor should believe they’re just friends. Still, Link can’t help but want the tour to be over and done with so that they can get on with their day.

The cabin is a quaint little thing. The rustic décor is definitely part of the reason why they had chosen this particular accommodation; the seclusion, rather than the décor, is the true bonus. The living room is small, containing only a loveseat and a single arm chair which face a fireplace filled to the brim with wood. Trevor talks at length about the black and white photograph which hangs over the mantle. Link tunes out for most of it and only picks up on something about a whole town being flooded when they [dammed the Snowy River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_Mountains_Scheme). Trevor then shows the kitchen with a fridge full of local produce and a freezer full of meats that they can ‘toss on the barbie’.

They get shown the bedroom which is only big enough to house a double bed, then the bathroom which is notably without a toilet. After showing the inside of the cabin, Trevor directs them to where the ‘loo’ is; an outhouse a few yards behind the cabin.

“Most guests don’t mind the loo,” Trevor explains, “The council is making me relocate it since it’s too close to the creek. That’s Little Thredbo River that runs through my property.” He points upslope in the direction of the creek. “Water’s normally low round this time of year but we’ve had a bit of rain so it should be a nice walk.”

Trevor takes his hands off his hips and leads the two men around to the front of the cabin, not bothering to swish the flies away from his face.

“What are you here for, then?” He asks, but before either Link or Rhett can answer, he adds, “I know you Americans are real into extreme sports. No time for skiing but we have a ripper of a mountain bike trail around here if you’re into that.” He seems to notice Link’s face lighting up so he continues, “I’ve got a couple of bikes in the shed… don’t think I’ve got one big enough for the basketballer though. I reckon if you adjust the seat and handlebars then she’ll be right.”

“What?’ Rhett says.

Trevor doesn’t seem to register their confusion and continues, “I’ve also got a mate down on Lake Jindabyne whose you can rent some waterboards from, or a jet ski or a speedboat… think he’s got a couple of rowboats or kayaks, some such. Let me know if you’re interested, I can get you a discount ahead of time.”

“Thanks,” Link says, holding up his hands, “If we had more time here we would, but we’re just gonna be hiking up mount, uh, the tallest mountain.”

“Kosciuszko? It’s a short, easy walk, that one,” Trevor says. Finally he swats away the flies on his face, then says, “Well, I’ll leave you lot to it. I’m just down the road if you need anything.”

Trevor climbs back into his pickup and drives off toward the main house, his dog barking in the tray the whole way.

“Did you hear how he said the name of the mountain? Lando was closer with ‘Mt Couscous’ than how we were saying it!”

“I’m gonna need to lie down,” Rhett informs him before turning into the cabin. With the host gone, Link tries to catch onto Rhett’s arm but he shrugs out of it, humming.

“Rhett, can you set up the hotspot thingy first?”

“Yeah, I’ll do it after,” Rhett says from the veranda.

Link follows him inside and says, “I’ll do it, I gotta see if it works.”

Rhett lets out a large sigh as he sits down on the bed. “You don’t know the codes.”

“Well tell me the codes.”

Rhett kicks off his shoes and lies down.

“Rhett.”

“I’m lying down now,” Rhett mumbles with his inner elbow over his eyes.

Link doesn’t want to argue, though he’s disappointed that Rhett’s choosing this time to use as his downtime. He resigns to bringing the luggage inside and when he sets the last bag in the living room, he peers into the bedroom and sees that Rhett has pulled a pillow over his face.

“I’m gonna check out the creek,” Link says loudly.

He waits to see if Rhett responds. When he doesn’t, Link moves on from thinking that Rhett is just in need of alone time and is truly upset about something, though he’s reluctant to acknowledge it because nothing _should_ be wrong. Honestly, he’d rather have a conversation with Rhett about whatever’s going on than play this silly game with him, but it takes two to tango and Rhett isn’t giving him his hand. Perhaps he just needs time.

Link leaves Rhett to rest and goes out the back door and walks in the direction that the host had pointed toward. He climbs up a steep slope littered with alpine vegetation; tufts of thin grasses cover the ground, with trees that are tall and wiry and look dead despite the flecks of green leaves sprouting from their branch ends.

 

_[Thredbo River - upstream. Image depicts alpine vegetation and slope of river.]_

 

He climbs over some mossy rocks, the sound of the river audible beyond the crest. Once over the short cliff, he walks beside water rushing down a rocky riverbed. Along his way, he’s surprised to see a small brown rabbit jumping through the brush. As he continues to walk, Link feels himself sweating from his brow and wonders how the skinks can lay on the rocks and sunbathe in this heat for so long. He moves up the river toward where the trees are closer together to take refuge in the shadows, though they aren’t much cooler than the heat of the midday sun.

Tired, he finds a tree trunk to sit on while he takes in the scene. The water sparkles where the sun shines onto the river, the surfacing tousling where the heavier portions of sediment clash in the currents. Above him, there’s a gentle rustle of the silver-grey leaves. A woody smell in the air. Even the sight of the familiar Eucalyptus trees reminds him of home, of California and then of North Carolina, of walks he and Rhett had taken in the forests there. Reminds him of chasing Rhett across the crumbly forest floor, both of them following the sound of the running river until they broke out on one side of the bank. Shoes and clothes on a rock while they threw their bodies into the cold water, their skin burning not from the temperature in nature but the temperature shared between their bodies, impossibly hot. Loose sand rushing over his bare feet, his fingers entangled in Rhett’s messy hair as they had kissed.

[A bird call](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf9GVLuFo1Y) that sounds like a charged laser gun, an ooooo-whip! Link flinches at the noise. Shortly after, rustling in the tree branches above him attracts his attention, and he spots a couple of red and blue birds grooming each other.

 

_[Rosella - native Australian parrot perching on gum tree branch]_

 

“Oh, would you look at that?” Link says to himself.

The alien bird calls again, but Link had been watching the two birds above his head and it had not come from them. He takes out his cell and records a short video of the birds, only switching it off when he’s able to record the bird call. He tries to send the video to Christy, only he doesn’t have the reception to send it.

He lifts his cell in the air, muttering to himself, “Come on…” Then starts walking along the riverside chasing the flickering bars.

“Come on!”

His heart begins to ache, his breath coming short. The eucalyptus trees around him look familiar, but everything else about the landscape is all so new. He feels light-headed, misses his family in a sudden pang to his heart, needs to hear his wife’s voice, needs to see the smiles of his children even though he knows he’s barely been away from them from half a day. He holds the cell up to the sky, waiting for the bars to come back. The cicada hum that blankets the forest starts to make his skin crawl, a shiver in the heat of the sun, and the warning about the drop bears returning to him at full force.

 

-

 

Rhett hears Link exit the cabin and dozes for a while until the loose screen door bangs shut on the frame, jolting him awake. Before he opens his eyes, he can see a large red splotch behind his closed eyelids. He peels his arm off his face to see the morning sun imparting strong rays through the dusty flyscreens over the windows in the bedroom. He sits up, the air feeling hot and tight around him. He busies himself with opening the windows and doors to allow some airflow. Warm air rushes through the corridor, but the movement is better than the stuffy stillness.

Rhett rummages through their luggage until he finds the laptop and sits down with it on the loveseat. He punches in the relevant information to begin the networking, and lays his head back on the loveseat as he waits for the process to complete. He gazes up at the brightly lit ceiling, the sun peering through the gaps in ventilation. Cracks wearing through the lines between walls and ceiling, like the structure is breaking at the seams.

The thing is, Rhett _knows_ he’s pissing Link off. He’s doing it on purpose because he kind of likes it when people are mad at him. He takes joy in it. And when Link is involved, it’s more than being amused by the rage of strangers, it’s seeing the annoyance on his best friend’s face transmuting to pressurised passion. The way Rhett can turn the snarl on Link’s mouth to bite and suck on his neck, bruise him where it’s going to show the next day. He tried to get that yesterday, teased Link in the hallway but all it ended up doing was leaving Rhett amped up and hungry for something Link left in the air. Poor Jessie didn’t have it in her to satisfy him completely. A restless night for him while his debauched and satisfied wife slept beside him.

He had been consumed by thoughts of Link fucking Christy in the adjacent room. His ears had strained to hear it, but he’d heard nothing. Had Link been silent on purpose? Or, if he hadn’t slept with Christy, why wasn’t Link all over him? That’s the catch. The Devil’s hooked tail. He’s indignantly mad at Link because he wants Link to be desperate for him. Though he knows that in the end, it’s he who is the one who’s innately desperate for Link. Weak for him, barbed wire plied pliant and soft for the sculptor to mould him to whatever he desires. How long can he pretend he’s as hard as stone?

The screen door bangs once more, startling Rhett and causing him to slam the lid of his laptop as if he has anything to hide. He looks up, eyes wide, to see Link pawing at the screen door and trying to pull it securely shut behind him.

“Oh good,” Link says when he sees Rhett sitting with the laptop, “Is the internet working?”

Rhett says nothing, simply puts the laptop aside and stands up.

Link blinks at him, scratches at a red spot on his neck, then says, “It’s so eerie up there. I’m trying to send Christy a recording I made of this – woah.”

In a second, Rhett cuts the distance between them, pulling his face as stern as possible and looms over Link. He can see traces of sweat in his hairline, a flush of red over his cheeks as they make eye contact. Then, in a calculated move, Rhett scowls at Link and makes to stomp back to the bedroom, but Link snatches onto his wrist.

Here it is. Rhett tries his hardest to hold back a smile.

“Quit being a child,” Link snarls as he yanks Rhett back to him.

Rhett stumbles, a growl low in his throat. The stone around him liquefying under Link’s smouldering gaze.

“What are you upset about, huh?” Link snaps, “Can’t get this thing resolved if I don’t know what’s going on.”

The stone drips off him, hardness giving way to malleable clay – except where it counts. He lifts his chin, eyes slanted toward Link, a gruff grunt at the hot barrier between them. Contactless. Rhett’s capacity to vocalise his want for Link to ravage him pooling around his feet.

“Talk to me.” Link narrows his eyes. Lips thin. “ _Rhett_.”

It’s a warning, a spark behind Link’s eyes, the spark of the tool against rock, the beginning of a great fire. Link’s giving Rhett the chance to step the small grass fire out before it spreads but he won’t. Rhett wants to see how the forests burn because of what he’s done.

He nips down to kiss Link first because he knows it’ll set him off. Link’s lips hot, curling under Rhett’s but taking the kiss with a force, a hand clamping around the back of Rhett’s neck. Link’s mouth is as hot as his skin, the difference being between saliva-wet and sweat-wet, the grill of the sun still simmering over the exposed areas of Link’s body. Rhett fists Link’s collar, his grit teeth preventing Link from slipping his tongue into his mouth.

Link parts off, his hand spread over Rhett’s neck, his glasses sliding off his face but instead of fixing them he tears Rhett’s fist off his collar and almost shoves Rhett down the corridor. Rhett stumbles again, his feet heavy, his hand flying out to steady him against the wall.

Link breaks and asks, “Sorry, baby, did that hurt?”

Rhett looks at Link over his shoulder, his eyes half-lidded. “Hey, woah, don’t get soft,” He warns, an encouragement. “Weren’t you mad at me?” He moves his hand to readjust his hard cock in his pants, fully aware that Link’s eyes are chasing the movement.

Link’s face darkens once more. “You were ignoring me all morning,” he starts, stalking over to Rhett. He grabs a handful of the back of Rhett’s shirt and pushes him toward the bedroom. “You know I hate it when you shut me out.”

The bedroom door swings and knocks against the frame of the double bed. Link’s hold on Rhett’s shirt is pulling the fabric so tight that it’s choking him, a whiplash reversal when Link pushes Rhett onto the bed.

“You ain’t even gonna apologise?” Link questions as he pushes down on Rhett’s back to make him go on all fours.

Rhett shivers in response to Link positioning him the way he wants. Sucks in a pocket of hot air, his cock straining painfully in his jeans. Link levers onto the bed behind Rhett, then hooks his hands around Rhett’s hips and angles his ass against Link’s groin. The move lets Rhett feel how hard Link already is, and he drops his forehead into his hands and moans in anticipation.

“There you are again, not saying anything,” Link tuts, “I’ll give you something to say.”

Hastily Link wraps his arms around Rhett’s waist to unfasten the belt buckle and slides the belt length loose enough to yank Rhett’s pants down. Zip teeth tearing, denim crunching, the jeans don’t move beyond Rhett’s knees and moments later, Rhett feels Link’s hot cock rub between his ass cheeks. Rhett takes air into his lungs, hot, everything’s hot. A hot summer’s day where the open windows are doing nothing but repositioning the warmth. No respite, except for the longing behind the pressure and the friction of hard muscles. Link’s fingers squeezing the fat around his hips tightly, the intoxicating slide of a sweat and spit slicked cock between his cheeks, teasing him at his hole.

“Baby,” Link growls, “Tell me what’s going on in your head. I want you to say it.”

Rhett fists the starchy sheets, a sigh of desire. “I want you to fuck me.”

“Is that what you’ve been thinking?” Link wonders aloud, the tip of his swollen cock at his hole, then nudging Rhett’s strung balls. “Sure it’s nothing else?”

“Aah…” Rhett tightens his ass muscles as if that will help keep Link close.

“I’ll tell you, Rhett, I don’t enjoy being jerked around by these mood swings of yours. You had me thinking that I’d – no touching!” Link brushes Rhett’s hand away from his cock. “You’re not getting your way until you’ve talked to me, brother.”

Even so, Link continues to grind his cock against Rhett, skin to skin but not hurting where Rhett wants to be hurt. Rhett takes in a large breath, presses his face into the mattress and pulls his shirt over his head, tossing the sweat riddled fabric away. As soon as the shirt is off his back, he feels Link’s hand chasing down his spine, the heel of his palm keeping Rhett angled.

“That’s not an answer, Rhett.”

Link huffs a short breath out of his nose, then eases off the bed. Rhett turns his cheek to the mattress to see what Link’s doing, eyes wide, and he watches Link step out of his shorts and proceed to sift through their luggage. Link finds the tub of lube, stands up and stares at Rhett, till expecting an answer. Rhett swallows, turns his face back to the mattress and waves Link over.

When he doesn’t feel the bed dip again, he draws his voice out deep and husky, “I told you, I want–”

“Baby,” Link reasons. He doesn’t say anymore, but the bed dips now and Rhett jolts when he feels a lubed finger teasing around his hole, lining the puckered shape, but not pressing in. “You know you can be honest with me. Just say what’s on your mind…”

Rhett tries to catch Link’s finger where he wants it to go but instead of falling for his trick, Link removes his finger entirely. “Nngh… Link… Show me how I’ve made you feel.”

Link sits back on his heels, warm air filling between the gap. “How you’ve made me feel?” He repeats blankly.

Rhett closes his eyes. “Yeah…. Haven’t I pissed you off?”

“Mmhmm, but it’s nothing we can’t talk through.”

Rhett wants to slap the man. _Just take the bait, damn it_ , Rhett thinks. “Did you fuck Christy?”

“What?” Link asks, hollow.

“Did you fuck your wife last night?” Rhett asks slowly, teeth grit, forehead on the mattress and body pulled tight and rigid.

Link pauses. “No, I didn’t.”

Rhett purses his lips. He brings a hand to his cock and strokes himself to keep the blood where it should be. He needs to play his next words carefully. Say the right thing that’s going to make it click into place for his best friend. _Couldn’t you get your mind off us in the stairwell? Didn’t that help? It helped me, only I’m still hungry for it. Aren’t you hungry for me?_

They’re like this sometimes. Sometimes, Rhett doesn’t have to say a word for Link to follow his train of thought.

“Oh, _baby_ ,” Link coos, “You want me, don’t you?”

Rhett fists the sheets with one hand and hastens his stroking with the other. “I want you so fucking bad Link.”

Rhett hears Link smirk, and the next second Link’s taking his hand off his cock at the same time as threading a finger inside him. Rhett’s eyes roll back and he moans.

“You think I haven’t been thinking about you all day,” Link says, and the second part is almost inaudible to Rhett, “Wondering when you were ready to open up…”

“Bet you didn’t think it’d be like this.”

Link mulls a laugh in his throat and turns it sour. “You’ve been giving me the silent treatment. Making me think that I’ve done something wrong…” He threads another lubed finger in, so ice-cold compared to the heat of the room. “…But it’s not me… who’s been bad…”

With two fingers in Rhett’s tight hole, he starts twisting and widening enough to fit another. Rhett drops his mouth open, lets the blanket beneath his lips form a wet patch as he pants, ass keening against Link’s fingers, whole body rippling with energy. He almost can’t wait to be fucked, wants to scream at Link to do it already. To not bother about prep, just _hurt_ him. He wants to feel the pain to feel good again.

“I’m gonna make you feel how I’ve been feeling all day…”

Rhett plans on responding but can only manage to moan because Link is thrusting three fingers in and out, sliding down Rhett’s cavern, beckoning the channel to widen and pave way for Link’s cock. Then, Link draws his fingers out, his slick hands spreading Rhett’s ass, and props his cockhead against Rhett’s gaping hole.

“Ugh, please…”

“You want it, don’t you, baby?” Link says as he slides his weeping head around the entrance. “You want to feel how bad you’ve been to me.”

Tears well in Rhett’s eyes, thick saliva around his teeth and tongue makes his speech sound sloppy. “Please, Link!”

They moan a fraction apart as Link obliges by finally pushing in. Link’s thick cock fills him out, wears down the last of the tense muscles as he wedges in again, hips to ass, a hand steadying Link and another jerking Rhett. Rhett feels like he’s bursting at his seams. It’s so goddamn hot. The natural air, their hot breaths, skin sticking and sliding and exuding sweat and the bittersweet stench of sex. And somehow, through it all, he forgets the heat, or gets used to it, because everything that he has is focused on the feel of Link’s cock pinpointing his prostate.

Sounds coming out of him totally incomprehensible to anyone except Link who can interpret the language, has been deciphering Rhett’s mumbling since the day they met and still doesn’t know how to reply vocally but knows what to do. Knows what Rhett’s grunting means and how he can make Rhett louder, clearer, a rumbling voice turned raucous and wild for Link’s direction.

When Link’s balls start to rise, Rhett feels the hand around his cock get lazy. He covers Link’s hand with his and keeps the speed going and moves his forearm beneath his forehead to secure him. But it hurts, it feels good but it hurts and he turns his mouth to his arm and exhales hot, wet breaths there, his teeth grazing his own skin. He feels Link gripping onto his hips so tight, a tenacity in his relentless bucks, hard and aimed and making Rhett convulse each time Link gets it _so right_.

He doesn’t mean to cum so early but he barely does anything to stop himself since the pleasure so readily outweighs the pain. He ejaculates onto the bed sheets while his best friend scours his insides, gasping for air, body shaking, and adapts it all into the plan. Breathless and light-headed, he keeps himself in position as long as he can as he takes Link. Lets the man sear him, huge cock tearing his muscles, thick head slamming his prostate and it hurts, it hurts, it always hurts but Rhett could have it like this every second of the day if he could.

He wishes he could see, has seen Link’s O-face a thousand times over but never enjoys it any less. Feels Link’s cum shooting inside him, burning sickly sweet. Link grunts and drops growling kisses over Rhett’s back as he finishes, flesh catching between his teeth at the brink of each wave. Bruises like hidden Easter eggs to discover later.

“ _Jesus_ ,” Link exclaims, collapsing on top of Rhett, his ear to the taller man’s back.

Rhett grunts at the weight of Link on top of him, grunts at the stickiness and the smell and the mess of sheets strewn all around them. Link’s cock easing out slowly, the gradual peel of a Band-Aid when the wound hasn’t healed completely. Cum drips out after Link’s cock leaves, as if to retract, rewind, and Rhett would make it happen, if he could. Elongate the act, stuck in a time loop of painful pre-ejaculation but no completion, so that it never ends too fast. Someone ought to invent that, for science.

Link slides off Rhett and lays down on the bed, kicking his feet either side of Rhett, his heels dangerously close to the mess Rhett made. Rhett yanks the sheets and tosses them aside, then starts to crawl over to Link. Although suddenly he straightens his back, knees still bent, and in a twisted voice, he says, “-Oh gosh…”

“ _What_?” Link pants.

Rhett whacks a fist against his chest and clutches the area above his heart. “I think I’m-!”

Link doesn’t have any energy left to move, all he can do is watch it happen.

“-Having a heart attack!” Rhett cries, relaxing his face entirely as he collapses on top of Link.

Link wheezes under the weight of the larger man. “One of these days you’re gonna have an actual heart attack...”

“Yeah, I’m _training_ you. Don’t you want to be strong enough to get out from underneath my weight if this ever happens for real?”

Link protests by trying to lift Rhett off him, but to no avail.

“I’m dead now,” Rhett informs him, relaxing all of his weight on top of Link.

Link lets him lay like this for a long while, long enough for Rhett to begin to wonder if the heat of the day wasn’t just a fragment of his imagination, because as he lays there with Link stroking his fingers through his hair, the temperature seems to have cooled down considerably.

He lifts his chin to peer out the clear fraction of a dusty window and watches as the clouds sweep over the sky with such incredible speed. He waits in the quiet, uneven breaths and the hum of cicadas filling the soundscape until a gust of wind exudes off the mountainside and rushes through the open doors. The beams in the cabin creak, and the roof inhales, as if a stronger wind could rip the whole roof clean off. The frames seem to have a firm hold, but Rhett wonders if they hold on to the structure for the temptation, for the tickle and the fright of weakened glue and rusting nails enabling a final breath of wind to blow the roof away.

The fly screen door bangs again, jolting both of them out of their dreamy afterglow. Rhett clears his throat and lifts off Link, bodies peeling apart as painlessly but noisily as Velcro.

“We better go do this hike before we get rained on,” Rhett says, his voice croaky.

Link’s eye brighten. "Can I drive?”

“Still no.”

“Aw, come on…” Link pouts.

Rhett compromises, “Fine, you can drive on the way back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading, and happy holidays/new year!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhett thinks that finally their holiday is going well. He only has himself to blame when things go wrong.

**Day 3 continued: Mt Kosciusko**

The chairlift creaks excessively each time the sheave assembly passes over the supporting towers. Their chair jolts from side to side as the tension wriggles across the angled braces, then rocks back to a smooth motion as it slides onto the single cable again. Link can see the muscles in Rhett’s arms straining each time this happens, his grip tightening on the seat of the chairlift so tightly that Link suspects that Rhett is trying to keep his weight off the seat entirely. It’s curiously dangerous considering Rhett’s fear of heights, and Link feels very much at fault for Rhett’s current predicament. Copulation between two middle aged men should never precede a hike, in Link’s books.

Link had considered skipping the hike entirely and just spending the afternoon together. As nice as that sounded, they both decided that the whole reason they had made this detour was to take the hike, so they better do it nevertheless. So Link had set about cleaning up the bedroom while Rhett packed a backpack with drinkable water, fruit from the garden and some sandwiches made from the food Trevor had supplied in the fridge and cupboards.

They had parked their rental car in the Thredbo car park and stopped by the information centre to pick up a map of the Mt Kosciusko walking tracks. There, they had been advised on two routes to the summit. They could hike 1-1.5 hours up the steepest part of the slope, or skip it with a 15 minute chairlift to continue a leisurely, low sloped walk to the summit and back again totalling 4-5 hours. Originally they were going to take on the full hike, but Link thought it best to take the shortcut for Rhett’s sake.

When the chairlift approaches the end terminal, Link jumps off easily, but has to help pull Rhett away from the chairlift still moving along its cycle. He can’t help but laugh at how stiff Rhett looks, clambering over the dusty cement floor with his hands clamping over Link’s forearms for support. When Rhett finds his footing, Link catches a glimpse of a grid pattern imprinted on his friend’s palms.

“You good man?” Link asks, moving his hand over Rhett’s hand on his forearm.

Rhett winces, but nods. Link runs his thumb in little circles over Rhett’s pink hand. Another chair arrives in the terminal and a family of three jump off. Rhett pries his hands off Link and begins running through a series of stretches before their walk.

Link stretches too, then when they embark on their walk, Link comments, “You had your eyes so wrenched shut on that thing, I bet you didn’t even get spooked by the drop.”

“Can’t get afraid if I can’t see,” Rhett quips, “Although, the sounds were uh, not very helpful.”

The abrasive, screeching noise of the cable wrapping around the bullwheel slowly deafens as they move along the grate paved walkway, leaving the mechanical howls to sound down the mountainside. After about an hour, Rhett stops briefly to swing his backpack over to his front, pulls out a water bottle and downs half of it is he starts walking alongside Link again. He gasps when he takes his lips away from the bottle and passes what’s left to Link.

Link nurses the bottle in his hand as he walks. They make small conversation about the scenery and noting the relative lack of other tourists, but overall Rhett is fairly quiet. The eucalyptus forests are something of a comfort. He’s quite used to seeing the spindly white trunks on the LA hills. The trees are twisted by the wind, a thick crowd of skeletons frozen to the eternal pause in the music of the landscape. The alpine vegetation is similar to what he saw along his walk by the creek earlier that day. Tufts of grasses and shrubbery a deep green, almost grey. And as the walkway takes them further up slope, the mountain becomes coloured with little yellow paper daisies dotted over the landscape, as well as deep purple wildflowers and mossy granite rocks.

 

_[Gum trees in the Mt Kosciuszko national park. ]_

 

Two or so hours into the walk, they take a break near the rather low and parched Snowy River snaking beneath the raised pathway. Link is surprised to see how small it is, more like a creek than a river. It’s a pattern he has noticed about Australia. Things are either ridiculously oversized or they are puny. After eating some fruit and catching their breath, they take on a steepened inclination where the walkway breaks into large steps.

Link walks behind Rhett as they climb the steps, eyeing the man cautiously.

Halfway up the steps, the path forks, with flatter ground leading right and the steep steps leading left. A signpost indicates a forest of rainbow eucalypts to the right, and they decide to take a small detour to check out the trees. Even though they’re walking on more even ground now, Link can hear Rhett’s breathing run ragged.

 

_[Rainbow Snow Gums on the walking track.]_

When they stop in front of a tree painted in festive colours, Rhett folds his hands and huffs.

“You’re not allowed to worry about me,” Rhett states.

Link frowns. “Why’s that? Isn’t it human nature to be concerned about people you love?”

Rhett glances at him, makes a little grunt before replying, “On the first night here, you were so … well, I don’t know, I thought you might’ve had culture shock. You were so unlike yourself, I was… immensely worried.”

“I don’t remember,” Link says, scratching his neck.

“Mm,” Rhett hums. “You were just really, _really_ tired.”

“Was I sleep walking?”

“Not sure,” Rhett replies thoughtfully, “You were pretty out of it… It scared me, brother. I didn’t know what to do.”

“Christy would’ve told you to let me sleep on it.”

“She did.”

“And it worked!” Link grins, water sloshing out of the bottle as he lifts his arms. “Nothing to worry about.”

Realizing that he had spilled the last of their water, Link screws the lid back on and zips it back into Rhett’s backpack. They walk back to the main path and continue up the large steps. Then, the slope begins to even out, leaving an hour or so of walking up a gentle inclination. Soon, they spot a handful of people crowded around a high point up ahead.

“Let’s make a deal,” Rhett proposes, “Because, I’ve gotta say, I’ve had enough worrying for only being three days in.”

“No drama from here on out,” Link agrees, scratching at the mosquito bite which has formed a lump on his neck. “Only fun, relaxation, and…” he hushes his voice as he continues, “Gettin’ hot and heavy in the sheets.”

Rhett rolls his eyes at the phrasing, but turns back to Link with a grin on his face. “Alright, first of all, you gotta stop itching that thing on your neck. You’re gonna make it worse.”

Link pouts as he removes his hand from his neck. He’ll have to scratch when Rhett’s not looking. He moves to stand on the edge of a rock on the summit. He knows better than to step too close to the edge knowing that Rhett is behind him.

He has already mentally prepared himself when Rhett grasps his shoulders and shakes him, crying, “Saved your life!”

Despite the mental preparation for the inevitable, Link’s frightened squeal echoes down the mountainside, causing some of the tourists at the summit to stop what they’re doing and look at him. Thankfully, no one seems to recognise Rhett and Link, and the tourists go back to taking pictures. Link retreats and snuggles against Rhett’s chest, prompting the taller man to wrap his arms around him. Rhett’s amused laughter choruses with the whistling wind from the Australian alps, a modest soundscape flowing around their bodies.

After a few minutes of watching the eastern clouds creep closer to the mountains, Link holds on to Rhett’s forearms wrapped around his chest and cries, “We’re on top of the other side of the world!”

“Pretty sure that there are taller mountains than this in South America,” Rhett says.

Link twist around and looks up at Rhett. “I didn’t mean that this is the tallest mountain in the Southern hemisphere. I meant that it’s the tallest on this _side_ of the globe.”

Rhett bunches his lips together for a moment, eyeing Link. “Still not… totally correct. I’d say there are taller mountains in New Zealand.”

He then removes his arms from Link and pulls his bag around to his front to pull out the food he had packed for their late lunch.

Link takes his sandwich when Rhett hands it to him, rolling his eyes. “Tallest in Australia, then.”

The two find a rock to sit on and begin eating their lunch.

“It’s not a bad view!” Link says.

“Not too shabby,” Rhett agrees.

 

_[Summit view.]_

 

Rhett slaps Link’s hand away from scratching his neck. “Hey, I’m worried about you man…”

“What did we agree on?”

Rhett smirks. “Yeah, okay.”

Whatever had bit Link when he was walking along the creek mustn’t have been a regular mosquito because it’s far more irritating than usual. He’d heard about the myriad of absurdly dangerous creatures in Australia and he may be beginning to worry about what exactly has sunk its teeth into his neck. Then again, Link has a habit of making wounds worse by obsessing over them. Honestly, he’s trying his best not to scratch, or to make Rhett or anyone else worried about him.

Link watches clouds spread across the mountainside and snake into the valley. It’s as if a total climate change has overcome the area, a spot of winter in the middle of summer. When they’ve packed up their lunch, a man in khaki shorts and a green park ranger shirt approaches them.

“Excuse us, there’s a storm due to hit in the next three hours or so. I advise you make your descent down soon for your own safety,” he informs them.

They thank him, and the man nods, then moves on to the next group of tourists to repeat the same thing verbatim. They decide to take in the view a little while longer before making their slow descent. Tourists who had left after them seem to overtake them on their way down, which is peculiar considering Rhett is normally a fast walker. Link puts it down to the fact that Rhett can’t seem to keep his hands off him. Keeps trying to hold onto Link’s hands or drape an arm around Link’s waist or steal a chaste kiss which slows them down quite a bit.

Before they reach the almost deserted chairlift, Rhett takes Link beneath a rock outcrop and kisses him hard and needy. The wind ruffles through Rhett’s hair, the tips of his ears red and his cheeks blushing.

“Rhett,” Link warns, but he kisses back and feels the warmth of Rhett’s breath trickle down his throat.

He runs a thumb along Rhett’s hairline and pulls the man back, panting. A chill wind whistles by them, slicing through the heat building between them.

Rhett’s eyes are glassy, pink rimmed. Lips wet and parted when he mumbles, “I want your dick in my mouth.”

“Rhett,” He says again, a final, levelled warning. He closes his eyes. “Not here.”

He moves his hands to grip Rhett’s hips, stops him from pressing his body any closer and turns to pull the man down toward the chairlift terminal. Rhett drums his fingers on his knees the whole way down and his lips are frisky with dirty epithets. By the time they reach the perimeter of the parking lot, they’re the only ones around, save for a few cars remained parked in the otherwise desolate lot. They run to their car, frivolous want in the spring of their step and the mountain blanketed with dense clouds behind their backs.

Rhett pulls Link against the car and drops to his knees and he’s lifting Link’s shirt, exposing his skin to the cool air. Link’s still caught up in the whirlwind of the motion. His head spinning, the landscape coalescing into a snowball of white, skewered with silver rods and black telephone wires and the tips of the gum trees sifting above the clouds like fallen leaves in a gentle stream.

He realises that Rhett has got his shorts pulled down already when Rhett starts palming his cock. A satisfied moan escapes him before he can hold the man back.

“Not _here_ ,” He repeats earnestly, “It’s too public.”

“There’s no one around,” Rhett tells him, a storm alight in his eyes when he glances up at Link.

“Mmm…” Link licks his lips. Rolls his head on his neck, words stuck in his throat when he feels Rhett’s lips mouthing over his clothed cock. “Wait, we’re not along – alone.”

Resignedly, Rhett tears his lips from Link’s wet underwear and slaps Link’s ass for good measure before keying into the car. A light rain begins as they move out of the Thredbo parking lot. Rhett doesn’t take the car very far. He leaves the tourist town, then takes the first lonely dirt road and plunges the car under the cover of thicket of trees. Rhett’s seatbelt clacks and snaps against the frame of the car with incredible speed as Rhett leaps out. He rounds the front and finds Link already trying to step out.

Rhett keeps Link seated by planting his palms on Link’s thighs, keeping Link’s legs hanging over the side of the seat. Link looks up at his best friend, his glasses sliding to the tip of his nose, heart in his throat as he licks his lips. Rhett’s hands on his thighs are heavy and warm and the next moment, he’s tugging Link’s shorts down as far as they’ll go with his legs spread the way they are.

Then, Rhett drops one knee on the lip of the passenger side door, just in front of the seat, his other foot digging into the pine needled ground. It doesn’t take long for Link to become fully erect – he was already halfway there anyway – but Rhett’s mouthing over his bulge certainly helps. Rhett’s hunger tangible in the fire on his lips, the boiling passion in his body radiating off him, a barrier against the cold of the day.

Rhett clings on to him, an arm around his waist and another on the chair and it’s up to Link to pull out his dick and transfer Rhett’s lips from cloth to skin. He exhales when he feels Rhett’s mouth cover the tip of his cock. His lips chase his own exhalation and prompts him to drop kisses over Rhett’s messy hair.

“You wanna taste me, don’t you, baby?” Link drawls.

Rhett nods awkwardly, a hum in his throat that vibrates down Link’s length. He groans. He uses the heel of his palm on the back of Rhett’s neck to encourage Rhett to take more in his mouth. Feels his best friend’s tongue slide around his girth and eagerly pull more of Link deep into his throat. Rhett is still trying to work out a rhythm. An erratic, jerky movement due to the angle and the way Rhett has chosen to support his position and Link has to shift to help it. Leans back and opens up more space for Rhett to move because as hungry as Rhett is, he’s barely been able to take in half of Link’s cock.

“Baby, are you gonna be able to fit my whole cock in your mouth?” Link coos, “I’m not sure if you can do it...”

Rhett grunts at this, and Link throws his head back when he feels Rhett wedge his jaw wider letting him take in more.

“Oh, honey, you’re so good,” He cries, trying hard not to buck the last inch of his cock inside. “You’re doing so well. Keep going, baby, I want to see if you can get it all the way in.”

Link peers down to see Rhett’s lips pull tight around his cock, watching the way Rhett’s head moves up and down and the way the shape of Rhett’s mouth accommodates Link’s cock. Slowly, incrementally, Rhett is able to fit Link’s entire.

“ _That’s_ it,” Link rasps, holding Rhett’s head in place while he enjoys the wet and the heat around his throbbing cock.

Then he relaxes his palming pressure and lets Rhett take over.

Rhett can’t quite get the full length in again, not when he’s going fast, but that’s fine with Link because Rhett doesn’t have to be able to deep throat him to be incredible at giving head. Words of encouragement spill out of Link, as they always do. Strangely, when he’s got nothing else to concentrate on except the feeling of his cock in someone’s mouth, he can’t shut up. Deals out words of wisdom in the form of dirty quips and pulls at Rhett’s shoulder and claws his fingers through Rhett’s hair when he’s close.

Normally it’s etiquette to ask but he knows what his best friend wants. His fingers lock around Rhett’s ears and his back curls forward, lips dropping heavy, wet kisses on Rhett’s head which fall apart almost instantly. His throat breaking out guttural moans as he cums inside Rhett’s mouth.

Rhett drinks him down. He fucking _loves_ it when Rhett takes it. Loves the look in Rhett’s eyes when he lifts off, cum dribbling in his beard, glistening on his lips. Loves the thought of his taste lingering in Rhett’s mouth afterward. A tinge of red blooms on Rhett’s cheeks when he stretches his neck, swallowing, craning backward to catch a spray of light rain wafting in the breeze. Droplets press into the fabric of Rhett’s clothes not covered by the booth of the car. The sound of the bush whispering in the gentle wash of the rain, tapping on the windscreen, their hearts drumming unnaturally louder than the water.

“Oh baby,” Link says, “You make me so happy.”

He reaches for Rhett though his body feels emptied, tingling with the brain synapses telling the muscles to move. He kisses Rhett, softly, appreciatively, then lolls back in the passenger seat. Body long and languid, like a worn out piece of chewing gum. Rhett carefully closes the door for Link, then stumbles back into the driver’s seat and grips the steering wheel. Rests his forehead on his hands, heaving, back rising and falling as he wrestles with his breaths. Then he kicks the car into gear, reverses out of the dirt road and joins the main one once more.

A pastel blue sunset simmers beneath the summer rain, white clouds banked by darker, greyer clouds which mark the weapon holds of a severe storm.

“Wait, wasn’t I meant to drive?” Link asks.

Rhett slows. “Oh yeah, I’m so used to getting in on this side. Want me to pull over?”

“No,” Link says as he leans on the headrest, eyes fluttering shut. “I’m spent. I’ll take it for a spin after we talk to the wives.”

 

-

 

Rhett sits on the loveseat with the computer on his lap and phone in hand and is willing his powers of staring to have some magical effect on making the devices pick up on an internet connection he had promised was active.

“What do you mean it’s not working?”

First of all, Rhett never _actually_ got around to making sure that the wifi was working. He’d planned on only laying down for a moment before getting the hotspot active but that didn’t happen. He wasn’t sure how long he had nodded off for, but he’d only just got up and turned the laptop on when Link happened to arrive from a walk moments later. At which point, Rhett’s lucid dreams and longing for Link had overcome any sensibility to finish what he was doing.

Second of all, Rhett seriously has seriously underestimated how mad Link would be about it… He’s absolutely _furious_. There’s a tenseness in Link’s shoulders and arms, a line in his lips and a furrow in his brows and all of that is projected onto Rhett like a fully powered, invisible shielded laser beam. Rhett feels as if Link might actually pop him one, though he knows Link never would even though the anger is completely justified.

And the thing with Link is that once he’s mad, he _stays_ mad.

“Should have waited for a rough fuck now, could’ve done us both some good,” Rhett jokes, trying to de-escalate the situation.

Link gapes at him, honest shock in his voice when he exclaims, “I’M NOT GONNA FUCK YOU NOW!”

Rhett holds up his hands. “Woah, hey now-”

“This is serious!” Link snaps, “We planned to call Christy and Jessie – our _wives_ – at 7pm.” Link shouts ‘wives’ in a quavering voice so encapsulated in rage that his NC accent elongates the vowel. “They’re _expecting_ us. If we don’t call, they’re gonna think something’s happened to us!”

“I know,” Rhett says. His hands are still held up but Link’s escalating voice is causing his to rise too. “I messed up, but it’s not the end of the world, Link!”

“Rhett, this is our family! Maybe back home it would be okay to miss a phone call but here, in another _country_ ? What if something has happened to _them_ and we won’t know until we get back to the airport because I trusted you with one thing-”

“-Hey, I can fix this!” Rhett interjects, trying to mitigate any more resentful remarks from arising out of his best friend, “I’m gonna run down and see if the guy has internet.”

“The guy?” Link repeats derisively.

Rhett tries not to prickle at the tone in his voice. “Trevor. The Airbnb host.”

Link’s eyes go wide. “He has to, right?!”

“I’d say so,” Rhett says as he collects the car keys. “You coming?”

As Rhett starts up the car engine, he tries to think back to the morning when Trevor was explaining how to get to his cottage in the case of an emergency. From memory, it was pretty straight forward, but the sky has darkened and the weather batters the vehicle around so much that Rhett’s bothered by the thought that they mightn’t even make it ‘just down the road’. Nevertheless, he tries to keep the short trip light-hearted by making a joke about the hectic driving being good off-road terrain practice, except that Link is fuming far too much for Rhett’s joke to have an effect on him.

Tires slosh through the muddy ground when Rhett pulls up outside Trevor’s cottage. It’s a small thing, no bigger than the cabin. The dog runs out on the porch and jumps and barks around Rhett’s legs as he walks up to the door. A dim, yellow light glows from the windows inside, and moths whack their little bodies against the glass trying to get closer to the heat source. Link has difficulty joining Rhett on the porch because the dog has left Rhett alone and has decided that Link is a sheep he must herd away from the front door.

When Trevor answers the door, he reeks of a blend of chocolate and pot. Rhett asks him about internet availability, but before Trevor answers, he yells something utterly incoherent yet effective at the dog, who immediately backs off Link and retreats to its bed on the porch.

“Sorry about that,” Trevor apologises, “There’s not much coverage in the first place. Storms like this one stamp any scraps of it right out.”

“I really need to call my wives.”

Trevor looks at him quizzically, then behind him at Link trudging through the rain behind. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Rhett says as solemnly as he can despite Link’s hand resting on the small of his back. “We just need to get the internet going.”

“I reckon there’s not much I can do for you blokes,” Trevor says, folding his arms. “You’re gonna have to head into town and try a good Samaritan there. Though not sure how helpful they’ll be under these weather conditions.”

Rhett turns to Link and sees his face set thin. The storm over their heads sweeps the rain in heavy sheets across the farmland, their heels licking wet despite the awning above their heads.

He has one last idea.

“Have you got a McDonald’s in Jindabyne?” Rhett asks, “It should have free wifi.”

“I’m afraid not. Closest one’s in Cooma, about an hour from here.”

Link steps off the porch with a huff. Shoes sloshing through the mud. The car door slams shut. Trevor gives Rhett a sympathetic look.

“What about Starbucks?”

“Mate, we’re in the middle of woop woop. Take my advice and wait it out ‘til the storm passes in the morning because it’s no use going out to Cooma at this time of night.”

“I have to try something. Can you refresh my memory on how to get to Cooma?”

“Sure.”

Link wants to drive again but for one thing, it was stormy as hell, and for another, Link is far too angry to be behind the wheel, which makes a very quiet, unsettling 50min drive to the Cooma McDonald’s. It’s not helping either of them. Link’s reluctance to talk out his rage is only making Rhett more and more anxious.

It’s almost 9pm when they arrive at the golden arches, but it’s one of the fanciest McDonald’s he’s seen in comparison to the ones in the States. He and Link take a seat on the red vinyl couches lining one side of the wall, where there are power plugs beneath the seats. It’s nerve wracking as hell to have Link breathing down his neck and he snaps at him though he knows that it’s his fault that Link is so amped up.

The storm hadn’t let up, which means that sadly the connection is patchy. Nevertheless, Rhett is able to secure a video for about seven seconds before it cuts out.

“Wait, what happened to the video?!” Link asks, frantically trying to click the redial button.

“Hey, hey,” Rhett says trying to move Link away from the laptop, “I don’t think it’s stable enough to stream the video. How about we write an email?”

Rhett leaves Link to write something up and goes to order something for dinner. He’d thought that staying in a remote cabin would mean no fast food for meals, then again, he hadn’t expected Australia’s internet coverage to be so shockingly bad outside of the capital cities. He’ll need to take the families out to a fancy restaurant the next chance he gets. He’s craving to try the variety of foods Australia has to offer, and try seafood that isn’t a Filet-O-Fish.

While he waits for their order, he watches water gush out of a gutter which has half fallen off the roof. Water pools on dark grey tiles lit by lights which should most certainly be switched off considering their proximity to the water stream. A crew person works on pushing the water down a drain embedded in the tiles with a large, semi-broken squeegee.

Rhett startles when he sees another crew person walk in front of him, carrying a tray with his and Link’s order arranged neatly on top.

Rhett straights from his leaning position against the counter and calls out, “Hey, hey, that’s mine.”

The crew person looks over her shoulder briefly but keeps moving away from him. “It was eat-in, right? You can sit down, I’m bringing everything over to you.”

Confused, Rhett looks at the person outside sliding a collection of water down the drain, then back to the person taking his food to where Link is sitting. He reaches the table just when the crew person has finished removing the ordered items from the tray.

“I think that was everything,” She says with a smile.

Link doesn’t look up from the laptop. Rhett blinks at her.

“I saw you staring outside,” she adds, “Don’t worry. It’s an old store, it gets flooded all the time.”

Then she walks away. Rhett turns his eyes to his steaming food, the story that Trevor had told him about a nearby town flooding resurfacing in his mind like a waking dream. He’s so tired, he could fall asleep in this 24 hour McDonalds if he hadn’t paid for accommodation elsewhere.

“I got a reply!” Link says, his voice echoing in the store empty of customers.

“What? I didn’t get to read the email you wrote before you sent it,” Rhett says.

Link ignores him as he reads the response.

“Let me read it,” Rhett says.

Link frowns, but doesn’t budge over or angle the laptop screen so that Rhett can easily peruse the email too. He puts down his half eaten burger and takes the laptop from Link, placing it pointedly in the middle of the table so they can both see. He glances over the quoted text of Link’s email. He’ll get an apology from him later, though nothing incriminating was said. Just a frank explanation of what had transpired, immaculately unembellished by Link’s rage.

Rhett then reads the reply which details the family’s own technical difficulties in getting the portable hotspot to function. Locke had apparently tried to help, but they’d soon discovered that the problem had been on the guys’ end. Other than that stressful moment, they were reportedly enjoying Melbourne. They had gone shopping, explored the little boutiques in the laneways of the inner city, had accidentally attended a free live music event in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens, and had gone to Phillip Island to see the fairy penguin parade in the evening. They all seemed to have had a fun-filled day, and had expressed how much Rhett and Link are going to like the city, saying that it had reminded them of San Francisco.

All sounded well, but the response, however whimsical and littered with loving anecdotes, was addressed from Jessie rather than Christy. Not a good sign. Rhett knows that, like her husband, Christy must be just as upset. Having Jessie sign off on Christy’s email, sans Christy’s name, is telling enough. So despite being somewhat calmed by the exchange of communication, Link isn’t entirely settled. He barely touches his food, and is the first one to make a move to leave.

Rhett clears their table and disposes of the rubbish in the bins. The person squeegeeing outside has abandoned his job, the rain having let up in its heavy downpour, and Rhett walks briskly through the rain to find Link standing firmly by the driver’s side.  

“Pass the keys,” Link asks flatly.

Rhett doesn’t hesitate to toss his friend the keys. The risk is a 50/50 anyway. He’ll either crash from being too exhausted behind the wheel or crash from Link driving dangerously. May as well take the option where he can at least shut his eyes.

He slouches in the seat, seatbelt snug under his chin, and closes his eyes as Link drives them back to their cabin. Clunky at first, as Link got used to where the pedals were and the gearbox being backwards and just _everything_ being backwards. Rain pattered on the glass, far less violently than earlier that night. Before slipping into sleep, he cracks his eyes open and says, “I’m sorry.”

Link glances at him, the rims of his glasses illuminated by the passing streetlights. It takes Link a while to reply. Rhett guesses there’s words stewing around in Link’s head that he’s not ready to flesh out yet, but it means a lot when Link replies with, “Me too.”

When Rhett wakes, the rain has stopped. The bitumen slipping beneath the car sparkles in the night as if it’s lathered in fine crystal powder. Dusty droplets rest pearlescent on the windscreen. He looks at the time. It’s late. Too late to still be in the car. He pulls at the seatbelt so that he can sit up and clears his throat.

“Where are we?”

Link shrugs in response. Keeps driving. Up and up, dark roads snaking along the mountainside. Yellow poles jut out on the edges of the asphalt, marking where the road cuts through the landscape. The poles reach metres high for when the snow coats the top of the mountain range, and they seem to glow like thin wisps of hay as they’re decorated in the light of the car’s high beams. Reflective road markers burn like the whitest, hottest fires before they disappear beneath the body of the vehicle.

The road flattens out and Link switches on cruise control. Rhett isn’t sure if he’d prefer Link use it or not. Can see the way that Link is gripping the steering wheel, the tension in his wrists when he turns for a corner, the tightness in his jaw when the car pushes into the next gear once the road straightens. Rhett takes his eyes off the driver to hold himself back from telling Link how to drive better, safer. How to slow down and take the corners easier and tries not to press his foot down on a ghost pedal when Link takes the corners too fast.

Instead, he sinks in the seat again and gazes out the window stained with drying raindrops. Clefts in distant hills blot out the stars. Retreating clouds form an illusion of a higher mountainscape in the background. The yellow poles whip across into black, over and over. Endless revisions of the yellow beside him and the light of the high beams reflecting off the road and casting a murky image across all that it touches.

Static on the radio. Glimpses of songs tune in and out. And then, a harsh lurch. Rhett slams his hands on the dashboard to prevent his face from colliding with the airbag box.

“What the hell, man?”

“I saw something,” Link says, hollow.

Link takes the car to a slow crawl. The poles look thicker at this pace, as if they wouldn’t be obliterated by the weight of seasonal snow. Link eyes the rearview mirror nervously, pushing his glasses back on his face, keeps the car creeping.

“There’s another one,” Link stammers, pointing at a shape further down the road.

Rhett unchokes his seatbelt, squinting at the shape the whole time. “It’s a mustang.”

Solitary, stationary. Steam lifting off the horse’s long face which hangs over the shoulder of the raod. Eyes glowing like a cat’s in the night as they roll past.

“I didn’t know they had mustangs here,” LInk says, his voice strained again.

“I think they call them brumbies,” Rhett replies. He twists in his chair as the end of the car passes by the horse, and stares back at the glowing eyes. Eyes like in those paintings that keep eye contact with you even though the thing doesn’t move. It just stands there. Then, as the car lights diminish, the horse’s eyes go dull, hard angles around the ears, neck, hooves, fade. Glitch out in almost an instant, back into the darkness.

“Brumbies,” Link repeats.

Radio static jumps, a loud crescendo of jazzy drums. Link startles, his fingers jittering when he turns it down. He takes the car a few miles before turning it off onto a side road. The wheels bump over uneven ground. Rhett rolls down the window to watch the shapes that scatter in the shrubbery, the unsettled dust breathing life through the still night.

Link perches the car on a ledge which surveys a black, bottomless pond, the headlights casting a spotlight over the water. Link slams the door shut. Leaves the car running. Rhett yawns and slides out. Stars are still dressed by the clouds, blotting out much of the light from the moon. He joins Link on the warm hood of the car. Link reaches for Rhett’s hand and brings it up to his lips, presses a kiss to Rhett’s knuckles.

“Sorry for being so hot-headed,” Link says.

The engine rumbles beneath them, vibrating their whole bodies with the mechanic heat versus the cool mountaintop air. Rhett scoots closer to Link, thighs touching. Looks up at the starless night, the clouds dressing the sky in a silky chemise sneakily hiding what the eyes would like to see.

“I should’ve made sure the wifi was working,” Rhett sighs as he slides off the hood. “Can’t believe I didn’t think to check that detail on the listing. You just kind of assume that the internet works everywhere.”

Loose rock gives way at the edge of the landing and falls into the darkness clustered around the short precipice. Eyes drooping. Vision hazy. He pinches himself to stay awake.

“Hey, at least you’ve stopped itching your neck,” Rhett says.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about it,” Link replies airily, then says, “Rhett, come here.”

Rhett follows Link’s voice, and turns around to see Link with his arms outstretched and head bound by a sphere of yellow light like a halo. Rhett blinks, and the light dissipates into a cone shape; far more physically possible than a prophetic dream. He gravitates toward Link. Link’s hands landing on his hips, pulling him close, letting Rhett fold into him. He buries his face into the crook of Link’s neck, the side without the lump, Link’s thighs replacing his hands which move to caress Rhett’s sweaty back.

Link cups Rhett’s chin and lifts his face level, kisses him softly, a smile on his lips. It melts him.

Naturally, it upsets him when Link is upset. He doesn’t want anyone to feel unloved or disrespected, and he works so hard to keep that playing field fair. Does anything he possibly can to rectify it when it isn’t. Everything Rhett does is to make Link happy. To make him laugh. To make that spark between them keep firing, never diminishing, and help it spread to the people they fall in love with too. He continues to kiss Link, soft, tender, tongue tired and lips worn out. Link may be calmer now, but he won’t be totally content until they can _both_ make peace with Christy the next day.

“If we stay out any longer,” Rhett mumbles as he parts from the kiss, “You’re gonna have to carry me to bed.”

Link caresses Rhett’s cheek where the neat trim of beard siddles against soft skin. “Alright, get in the car then, boy.”

“When are you gonna get tough enough to carry me, huh?” Rhett jokes, “When are you gonna sweep me off my feet?”

Link presses a peck on Rhett’s lips before parting from him. He moves toward the driver’s side, hand on the door as he quips “Haven’t I already?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, that's about it for the angsty plotty bits. final two chapters should be just cute family bonding in the day and ot4 smut in the evening. :P thanks to everyone sticking it out with me so far :D
> 
> btw, if anyone is interested in being my beta, hmu!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so sorry it's taken so long to get this next update out! thank you so much to pringlesaremydivision for being my beta!! lauren is a true gift!
> 
> also thank you to loudspeakr, SciFi_Warrior, Rachel, and anyone else who gave me advice re things to do in Melbourne and general australian oddities!

**Day 4:  near Crackenback**

Link sleeps a restless night, heavy with dreams of stallions with glowing yellow eyes. They march in pairs alongside the road that’s shrouded in the dark of the night. A cowboy with a strong jaw hidden under a thick beard joins him, hand in hand, as they walk along the stretch of frosty bitumen. The horses begin to gallop alongside them, large yellow poles that are skewered into the ground, wobble from the whiplash of the passing herd. And the horses’ eyes get bigger and bigger until the yellow eclipses his vision and Link is forced to tear himself out of his dreamscape, exposing himself to the high sun and a day well broken.

He blinks, eyes bleary. Eyelids swathed in midnight-blue dreams, irises taking in the real contrast under the blur of silver discs which collect along his eyelashes. He can smell burning wood, hear the soft crackle of the fire and the sizzling of meat on a grill. It’s a beautiful thing to wake up to considering he has no one to cuddle in bed. It reminds him of camping with Rhett when they were younger. Just the two of them in the quiet wilderness, where there’s no street lamps to bronze the leaves on the trees and no charging traffic like incoming missiles. Idyllic childhood memories of a time where there was no internet, where they made their own fun talking and imagining and making cassette tapes of stories and songs as entertainment. It was a different time, where time was literally measured by the position of the sun rather than four numbers on a screen.

“What time  _ is _ it?” He mumbles to himself.

They’re meant to go on a hike around the Jindabyne Lake before they go to the airport, but Rhett seems to have let him sleep through their alarm. He pats around for his glasses and puts them on just in time to see Rhett coming into the bedroom with a plate in his hands. Rhett smiles warmly, his eyes crinkling and his cheeks rounding, a sight that shoots warmth straight to his cock and makes Link blush. That, and considering the non-sexy dream he’d awoken from.

“Good, you’re awake,” Rhett says, “I brought barbequed breakfast in bed.”

Rhett balances the steaming food on the plate as he shuffles Link’s legs aside so that he can sit on the bed. The sight of Rhett’s hand spread out on his calf harks back to his dream – the cowboy walking solemnly beside him, a firm grip over his hand, and the lingering memory of the spooky yellow horses attempts to disarm him, but does nothing to ease the severity of his morning wood when there’s a handsome man before him, serving him breakfast. Link pulls a too-thick pillow to conceal his lap and rests his chin on it while he watches Rhett cut the meal into fork sized pieces.

“How’d you sleep?” Rhett asks as he divides the food. Link fights down a yawn before he replies, but it overcomes him. Rhett looks up and eyes his neck. “The lump has gone down.”

Link slaps a hand to his neck and feels the bite that he had received the day before has reduced considerably. It’s a little tender to touch, but otherwise it seems to no longer be irritating. 

“Hey, what about our hike this morning? Are we skipping it?” 

Rhett pauses. “Yep. I could feel your heartbeat through the mattress all night. Thought you needed the sleep in.” He brings the fork stacked with food and chews it down enough to continue talking. “We can hang out here until we need to return the car.”

“Hey, where’s mine?” Link asks, his eyes chasing Rhett taking another forkful of food into his mouth.

Link scoots closer to Rhett, his pillow still pressed to his front, and peers over his friend’s shoulder. He can already smell it, but now he can see the contents of the plate; sausages, eggs, and some kind of meat that smells like… buffalo?

“What’s  _ that _ ?” Link asks, pointing at the cut of dubious meat.

“It’s kangaroo meat,” Rhett says, “Trevor had some in the freezer. Want some? I haven’t tried it yet.”

Link hooks his chin over Rhett’s shoulder and gazes down at the cut of meat oozing juices onto the plate. “I’d feel bad eating Australia’s emblem,” Link says, then turns to kiss Rhett’s shoulder.

“He said – Trevor, the guy-” Rhett stutters, keening into Link’s touch, “-Said that kangaroos aren’t endangered. They outnumber Australians by two to one.”

“Oh really?” Link says, hooking his fingers beneath the neck hole of Rhett’s t-shirt and pulling it aside to expose the skin on Rhett’s shoulder.

“How about I take it – how about I  _ taste _ it first? I’ll tell you if you’ll like it or not,” Rhett suggests.

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll like it,” Link murmurs.

Link spreads kisses over Rhett’s warm skin, chasing the firm muscles to his neck. He smells of the outdoors. The smoke that exudes off exotic wood, the fresh air, the flavours of the meats and just a hint of salty sweat from work under the sun. Link isn’t fooled by Rhett’s stoic movement as he eats a portion of the kangaroo meat, taking note of the way Rhett’s neck flexes under his kisses.

“Mmm, oh... oh no. Not sure that you’re going to like this.”

“Really?” Link frowns.

Link yanks the pillow out from being pressed between his front and Rhett’s back, tossing the pillow with a soft thud against the wall. He then holds onto Rhett’s shoulder, his cock pressing into Rhett’s side as he peers at Rhett’s face, watching the man grin, cheeks flushed.

“More for me,” Rhett says as he forks his next portion.

Link pinches the portion off the fork with his bare hands and drops it into his mouth. “It’s really good,” Link starts and emphasises his last two words with a little shove to Rhett’s shoulder, “You liar.”

“Woah, hey now,” Rhett says, trying to balance the plate as he’s being shoved.

Link exhales at the loss of contact when Rhett gets up to place the plate on the bedside table – a more stable surface. Link’s eyes linger on the sliver of skin exposed as Rhett bends over, his shirt hitching up, his ass fitted tight into blue jeans, and he drags his eyes over Rhett’s body when he turns around, stopping breathless at the blue-tinged lust in his eyes. Rhett takes the opportunity to pounce on Link, pinning him to the mattress with his hands around Link’s wrists. Rhett lets off for a moment only to fix Link’s glasses, then returns to pinning him down. Link bites his lower lip, the taste of kangaroo lingering in his mouth. He bucks gently, a small roll against nothing but air. He desperately wants to get Rhett out of all of his clothes, and himself out of his boxers, but what he’d first taken as hunger in Rhett’s eyes, now seems to be something else.

“Hey…” Link says softly, lifting his hand to run the back of his fingers over Rhett’s jawline.

Rhett’s eyes flutter, blinking away the piercing look that had dominated him just moments ago. Rhett then drops to Link’s side, the bed heaving under the sudden movement. Link curls into him, looking up into his eyes, and he waits.

Rhett’s gaze hovers over Link’s tented boxers relaxing. “Are you mad… about the hike?”

Link blinks. “What?”

Rhett licks his lips. “That we’re skipping it.”

Link wraps an arm around Rhett’s waist. “It’s fine, we did the most important one.”

“You sure?” Rhett asks, lifting his gaze to meet Link’s.

“Yeah,” Link confirms.

He plays with the folds in Rhett’s shirt, flattening the creases in the sleeves and pulls at the bunching around his waist. It must be hot outside because the sun shining in through the dusty windows is warmer than it was yesterday, in the brief amount of time that the sun was out. The heat between them is bearable, though. Comforting, more so when Rhett relaxes,  _ if _ he will. Link recalls something Rhett had said earlier – that he could feel Link’s heartbeat through the mattress. Link can feel Rhett’s now, beating through the bed, through skin and muscle and bone. He waits again, because he knows that Rhett’s anxiety hasn’t let him say everything that’s on his mind.

“And yesterday… about the internet…” Rhett trails off.

“I was thinking,” Link starts, to fill in the blank, “That we should purposefully disable the hotspots we bought for the family, so that on the Great Ocean Road the kids pay more attention to the holiday. Or is that mean?”

Rhett’s chest swells with dry laughter. “That’s pretty sadistic, brother.”

“It’s just been nice, you know, like old times. Our kids are maybe  _ too used _ to technology to provide entertainment for themselves.”

“Well, good luck with keeping them busy enough to learn that lesson,” Rhett laughs, but it’s off a little. Sincere, but hollow in a strange way.

“What is it, man?” Link asks.

Rhett weaves an arm over Link’s and places his palm on the small of Link’s back, his thumb moving in little circles as he thinks.

“Rhett, I’m sorry about yesterday. I’m not mad anymore.”

“But Christy…” Rhett says quietly.

“My wife?” Link lets slip.  _ Our wife, _ he thinks in correction.

“Yeah, the email…”

“Help me out, man. What about it? It sounded to me like they were having a good time. I think I’m going to like Melbourne.”

“Jessie wrote the reply, but Christy didn’t sign off… didn’t you see?”

Link blinks again. “Rhett, that doesn’t mean  _ anything _ .”

“I think it does.”

“You’re making something out of nothing,” Link says, reaching to press a peck on Rhett’s worried lips. “Relax.”

“I’ll need to see her to believe she doesn’t want to eat me for breakfast.”

“I know her –  _ you  _ know her – I’m sure she doesn’t.”

Rhett lies on his back. “But I get it, I get why you were so furious yesterday. It’s the distance… I can’t, we can’t just call our wives up and talk any time. We had the set time and I messed it up, and now they’re gonna think that we were disrespecting them by delaying talking to them in favour of, you know, you and I being together.”

“Honestly, it had crossed my mind that Christy might suspect us of being selfish,” Link says as he lays on his side facing Rhett, “But I also know that Christy is a sensible woman. You know this too, you’re only doubting it because she’s not here to clarify otherwise. That’s not what I was  _ really _ mad about, though.”

“You were disappointed that I didn’t tell you when I couldn’t connect to the server.”

“You understand that.” Link nods. “We would have had to travel to get a connection either way but-”

“-I delayed telling you, that’s what you were mad about.”

“We don’t delay that kind of communication. We only delay stories for GMM, unless you were planning on telling our Mythical Beasts about your ploy to have rough sex?”

Rhett laughs, and he rolls onto his side again to face Link. “You’re right,” Rhett begins. He spots Link’s eyebrows shoot right up and quickly clarifies, “No, no. About Christy. Just to be sure I’m going to have to see her to believe it.”

“You really have nothing to worry about,” Link says, wrapping an arm around Rhett again. “You worrywart.”

“I love you, man,” Rhett says softly.

Link smiles, one which quickly turns cheeky. “Why, what else do you love about me?”

“I love your mouth,” Rhett replies, “I love kissing your lips… and running my tongue along your teeth… and feeling how sharp they are under my fingers.”

“Do it,” Link says.

Rhett obliges, lifting his forefinger to the shape of Link’s mouth, and turning it upside down so that the pads of his fingers play with the canines.

“Your mouth was made to caress,” he states, as if it’s a divine fact.

The inner curve of Link’s lip is wet on his fingernail, and he pushes his finger further into Link’s mouth, lifting his jaw open wider. Link closes his eyes and slowly runs his tongue over Rhett’s charcoal laced finger. Link’s cock stirs. Takes a bit longer to get hard the older he gets, easier with dreams but there are things he can do to ease it along, bolstered by love as old as time. He focuses on the digit in his mouth, loves the length and loves the way Rhett’s fingers fit in, and fit into him elsewhere. Wants one more, bigger and better, wants the white salt more than the black pepper to fill his mouth, make himself choke.

Link looks up, his gaze dancing over Rhett’s lips which are parted in a careful pout. Rhett’s eyes are drooped, half-lidded, as he watches Link tease his finger. Rhett’s tongue darts along his lips when Link drops the finger out of his mouth and shifts to straddle Rhett’s legs. He bristles with anticipation when he feels Rhett’s hands fitting easily on his hips. He covers Rhett’s hands in his and lifts them as he shuffles down Rhett’s long legs, gets into the right position so that he can unsheathe Rhett’s cock.

Before he works on unbuckling his best friend, he guides Rhett’s right hand, one finger already wet, and pushes Rhett’s hand into his hair. Then Rhett’s left hand slides over Link’s jaw, his middle finger pressing over Link’s beating pulse. Link growls with the feeling of Rhett combing his hair and other hand spread over half his jaw and neck and Rhett moves with him as he undoes Rhett’s pants. As he’s fumbling with the zipper, his fingertips hot and tingly, he can feel how hard Rhett is beneath the denim and cotton layers. Honestly, Link’s almost jealous, but he transforms that feeling into anticipation strong enough to get his own cock to rival in hardness. Won’t be long now.

He gets the zipper undone and Rhett helps to yank the fabric down his thighs and off one leg. That’s as far as he gets before Link straddles him again. Link pinches at Rhett’s hands and they go back to how they were, sans obstructions. Link wraps his ring finger around the thick base of Rhett’s cock and presses his thumb just beneath the red, glistening tip. The sight of Rhett already weeping for him makes him feel hot all over, his tightening around his abdomen, and lower. He scoots inches closer to Rhett’s cock and hovers his lips just beside the length as he sends a devious grin Rhett’s way. 

Rhett’s right about one thing; his mouth  _ is _ made to caress. Link wouldn’t like to voice such a boast but, indignantly, he knows that he’s better at sucking cock than Rhett. God bestowed him with his lips, his mouth, his throat, and by the devil he’ll take Rhett’s length as deep as it can go.  He curls his grin around the hard hat of Rhett’s tip, dresses the length in his sticky saliva and tastes Rhett’s precum sliding onto his tongue. He may have God to thank for the shape of his mouth, but he has Rhett to thank for widening his palette. Rhett always encouraged him to try new foods, tried to teach him how to separate the flavours and trained his gag reflex from years of choking on things that made cum taste as good as peanut butter. Deep throating Rhett’s cock? Piece of cake. 

The moment Rhett’s cock taps the back of Link’s throat, Rhett throws his head back and purrs, “That’s so good, baby.”

Link mines into his years of experience to not choke when it really counts, and chuckles at Rhett’s response. He repeats the motion. Tries not to use too much teeth either, just the grazing corners of his canines catching on the now slick foreskin. The thing is, Link  _ loves _ to talk. Some would say that he just likes the sound of his own voice, and maybe he does, but that’s not why he’s normally so talkative. He loves to say things that sends shivers up and down his lover’s spine, loves to encourage them, coax them, cheer them on and with cock in his mouth all he can do is convey that in noises rather than words.

He widens his lips around the throbbing circumference of Rhett’s dick and hums in order to lure a natural vibration along the length. Dips down again to repeat the action, this time hollowing his cheeks for added heat and wetness and shivers in response to Rhett’s moaning.

“Oh  _ God _ Link.”

Link keeps the rhythm going like it’s a conversation. A conversation between organs, mouth and cock, but it isn’t just Rhett making Link swallow his words—there’s nourishment, too. Rhett reciprocates by massaging Link’s head slowly, his other hand grasping Link’s neck with  _ just _ the right amount of force for it to hurt, but not enough to irritate his lump. Exhales heavy, happy breathes with Link sliding his cock in and not all the way out of his mouth.

Link only wishes Rhett would talk more. Talk over him like he does in other contexts, make him wait in suffering impatience while Rhett rants because the sound of Rhett’s voice alone can be so  _ dominating _ that it almost doesn’t matter if Rhett’s reading from a street directory or telling him what to  _ do _ . It’s the inflection in Rhett’s voice that tickles him all over. Wants Rhett to command him, use his voice like a weapon and teach him a lesson, but that’s how Link knows how mind-blowingly good he is at taking Rhett’s breath away – because he’s quiet. Link has a way of reducing Rhett’s vocabulary to five or less words, less and less, until he’s wordless. Mewling and heady and  _ incapable _ of speaking.

Rhett’s kind enough, or stupid enough, to warn him that he’s about to cum, communicated in a way that Link is all too familiar with. Kind enough, as a tapping of his fingers, like Morse code, against Link’s skull, and the jerk of his knees which nudge against Link’s chest. Stupid enough, because Link never lets him off that easy. Lifts his mouth off Rhett’s cock in one swift motion and pulls Rhett by the shoulder, slams their lips together where the conversation continues. Electricity sparks out from there, travels along blood veins and talks to muscles and Rhett and Link coil together, entangled like telephone wires with their hands on each other’s cock, pumping with wanton haste. Rhett’s sweaty hands help to dispel the hot dryness on Link’s cock, washing him with sweet relief. Roughness equalised with wetness, the cool distance that was once between them now severed by having pulled Rhett close to him, a symbiosis of needs being met before either of them can voice what’s required. 

Rhett’s kissing becomes slack. Hot, panting breaths. He can tell Rhett’s trying to hold on. Fingers clawing at Link’s shoulder and back, his eyes screwing shut and his lips thinning in the kiss with concentration, but he cums first anyway. And that’s alright because Rhett flops down on the bed, graceful like a dancer, his skin flushed and sheening and Rhett’s utterly blissed out face is the last thing Link sees before he cums too. There’s a moment of mindlessness. A blankness that reflects off the walls of his mind in a seemingly infinite cycle, until the soft mattress hitting his side as he collapses on it, causes the mirrors to crumble backwards into the finest sand composites that they once were. 

His body like jelly, he folds into Rhett’s arms, flops an arm over Rhett’s shirt and realises that he hadn’t paid attention to his aim, and that Rhett’s going to have to change his shirt now. Rhett doesn’t seem to mind, his head in the clouds, and Link freely takes in much needed oxygen, the scent of after-sex and the spicy aroma their body odours make when combined.

Rhett presses a kiss into Link’s sweat matted hair, words still beyond his capabilities. Link lets his mind wander, thinking about the conversation they’d had earlier about Rhett’s worries and about the conversation they’d shared in love making and it goes much further than just lips and lungs and cocks. The conversation expands outward, encompasses the wives in the act but also in the exchange of detailing the sexual encounters as brief or as vividly as they’d like. And beyond that too, there are conversations happening concurrently, silently, above their heads and behind their backs, between God in his heaven and the devils dancing below.

For a hot second Link thinks he’s delved into something prophetic until he remembers that the smell of charcoal and burnt flesh is actually the remnants of the barbequed breakfast. His stomach rumbles.

“Is there any more?”

Rhett shifts. “…You want to go again?”

Link reaches over to grab the plate and pokes a finger at a very cold sausage. He purses his lips. “I could go for some more ‘roo.”

“Oh, right,” Rhett says, relaxing. “Yeah, there’s plenty. You hungry still?”

“Well, I barely got anything in my mouth…” Link says. He sees Rhett’s eyebrows shoot up and he clarifies, “Any food.”

Rhett laughs. Link will never get tired of that sound. They lie together for a little while longer, until Link’s stomach rumbles too loudly and Rhett decides he better feed his man. While Rhett tends to the barbeque, Link busies himself with cleaning himself up, getting dressed and tidying the room. He’s so ravenously hungry that the smell wafting in from outside is absolutely intoxicating. By the time Rhett calls him out, he’s practically salivating for a proper meal.

Outside, there’s a new-ish picnic table which looks rather out of place compared to the rustic appearance of the cabin. The grass underneath the table is drier and browner than the surrounding grass, probably getting too swamped by rain. Link sits down at the table, says his thanks with Rhett, then digs in. The sun glistens overhead, and amidst the delicious smell of barbequed meats, vegetable oil and grilled charcoal, Link can smell the distinct scent of rainwater dissolved in the warming summer air. The accommodation they had chosen certainly is in an exquisite area. Nestled into the hillside means they overlook the farm valley below with clusters of forest scattered across the deep and silvery greens. If they had the time, he would love to stay another night and fully immerse himself in the escape from the city.    
It occurs to him that he still doesn’t know what time it is. It wouldn’t matter, either, if they didn’t have a flight at midday to catch, so despite being in such a serene location worthy of thoughtful appreciation, he still has a sense of time slipping away. A feeling which is worsened when Link spots a trail of dust billowing behind Trevor’s truck as he makes his way toward the cabin for checkout.    
Link leaves Rhett to tidy up the barbeque and with a warning not to get into a tirade with Trevor over the internet.    
“It didn’t say on the listing. Maybe he doesn’t know that it should be advertised,” Rhett insists.    
“If you can’t stop yourself, do it kindly, please. I want a good review.”   
Link spends a little longer making sure the cabin interior is, if anything, more immaculate than they found it, and comes out with the luggage just in time to hear Trevor warning Rhett about the possibility of fallen trees after the storm. If Rhett had said anything, Link’s lucky to have missed it all. When the car is all packed up, they thank and farewell Trevor and head to drop off the rental car adjacent to the airport.    
  


 

**Melbourne**

With their travel phones in range once again, Rhett and Link double check the plan with Christy to meet her at the hotel in Melbourne where they can drop off their luggage, then meet the rest of the families at a museum for lunch. Christy sounds completely normal over the phone, yet Rhett would still like to see her and Jessie to firmly quell his suspicions, as old and unsubstantiated as they are now.

It’s vulnerable times like these when Rhett has the unshakeable thought that there’s a risk in upsetting Christy because she may thrust the whole polyamorous relationship in peril. There were times in the past where it almost happened. She had always been more on the edge of the idea of polyamory than anyone else, and it had taken a lot of hard work between the four of them to get their relationships into the cohesive state that it is now. The last thing Rhett wants to do is cause a division between them while they’re oceans away from home. He knows that Link is probably right, that nothing is even wrong, but he can’t help but be anxious about it. He just needs to be in the same room as her to get a handle on reality.

The flight to Melbourne contains considerably more passengers than the flight from Sydney to Cooma, but there are enough free seats for Rhett to secure the row with maximised leg room. When they fly over Melbourne, the city is rife with silver structures flanked by greenery. Flowers blanket the city in polka dots of reds, yellows, and vibrant purples. (Jessie will later inform Rhett that the purple flowers are Bougainvillea and Agapanthus).

The minute they climb off the plane, they meet the calamitous contrast of the country and the city. It’s a feeling they know all too well from trips to North Carolina and back to Los Angeles, but the stark difference never ceases to impress them. Airplane turbines roar as they move toward the terminal. Automatic doors glide open, and a whoosh of regulated air slams into them. Conveyor belts catch on plastic tracks, weighed down by luggage. Outside, the humidity breaks them out in sweats. Cars, buses and trams honk. Cigarette buds roll together with other garbage like tumbleweeds. At the taxi zone in front of their hotel, a train passes above them, the bridge rumbling loudly and masking the sound of tyres skidding away. Even just walking on the sidewalk, Rhett and Link can feel the noises of the city throbbing through the pavement.

When they meet Christy in the hotel foyer, Rhett assumes a chill demeanour, like Link, but can’t help but feel like a dog with his tail between his legs. The feeling almost entirely goes away when Christy, after greeting Link with a hug and a kiss, does the same to Rhett. She then hands him his room key with a genuine smile on her face, accompanied by a soft squeeze of his elbow. Nevertheless, Rhett feels stupidly left out (and punished) when Link and Christy go into their room without him. He knows it’s important for Link to make up to Christy (if that’s truly what’s required) and when that’s done, he’ll follow suit.

For now, he sits on the made up bed and waits. He wonders if Jessie slept by herself last night, or if she shared a bed with Christy. He stares at the bedding for only a minute before realising that there’s a piece of folded paper standing on the top of one pillow. His name is written on it in Jessie’s handwriting. He stands up and goes to pick up the note, but trips on a bag on the ground which had been half tucked underneath the bed. The note reveals that the bag was strategically planted as a surprise and contains presents that she had bought for both Rhett and Link the day before.

He lifts the bag onto the bed and pulls out the T-shirt for Link, which is a ‘Mambo’ shirt with bright, almost garish cartoons on the front. He puts it aside, and rifles through the remaining contents. Jessie definitely over-buys for Rhett. Link would be stressed to see how many nifty little trinkets Jessie has bought him, but Rhett doesn’t mind because he honestly  _ adores _ being showered in gifts on any occasion.

He’s just about to turn the bag upside down to get a better look at everything, but before he can do so, he hears a knock on the door. He sets the bag aside and goes to open the door, and the moment he does, Christy pounces on him. Rhett catches her as she wraps her arms around him and, taller on her toes than even Jessie, plants a lipstick kiss on his chin.

“See?” Link says smugly from the hallway.

The chaotic butterflies in his chest find their places in a flock and fly gently, painting a smile on his face. Rhett holds onto Christy and lifts her to kiss her, half spins her, then sets her down. She laughs, her blonde hair sweeping around her flushed face.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Rhett says, her hands still on her waist.

“That’s my line, mister,” She replies. She takes hold of one of his hands and leads him out into the hallway and repeats what Link had said earlier, “You had nothing to worry about.”

 

_ [Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Federation square] _

 

The three of them leave the hotel and go to meet the Neals and the McLaughlins in Federation Square. Jessie had just taken the kids to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) for the exhibition on the history of video games, and she looks absolutely relieved to see the three other parents returning. She greets Rhett with a hug and a kiss, and Link appropriately under the public eye, and they all sit down at a table for lunch and tell each other what has transpired since they last saw each other.

Together they explore Federation Square after lunch. They take photos with the movie props poised like sculptures around the Square, try a coffee from the first [ McCafe in the world](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCaf%C3%A9) on Swanson Street, shop through the boutiques and walk through graffiti covered laneways. The wives were right; Link absolutely loves Melbourne. It has a livelier, more creative feel than Sydney, and definitely reminds them of the hip areas in San Fran. If Link had truly felt homesick, coming to Melbourne first would have been the best way to make him feel comfortable.

They resort to having dinner on the rooftop terrace of their hotel since they are all tired from their long day,  and bask in the twinkling lights of the surrounding city knowing that this will be the last time they'll be in such an environment for just over a week starting the following day. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> recommended reading: the following chapter for Intense Smut.


	6. Chapter 6

**Day 5: The Great Ocean Road**

In the morning, Rhett and Link pick up the two 4WDs they had rented specifically for off-roading and everyone packed in their luggage across the two vehicles. Link is a little nervous about the number of possessions they are amassing. He’s reassured that, worse comes to worst, they can always ship their souvenirs back home, except calculating the cost of that doesn’t ease his worries.

With Rhett and Link having only spent a day in Melbourne, and the rest only twice that, some have conflicting feelings about embarking on the next section of their holiday. For Rhett and Link, it’s the part they’ve been looking forward to the most. In fact, the entire holiday schedule was built around the five day Great Ocean Road drive. Link knows that Christy is eager for the drive too because it means no air travel until they fly from Alice Springs to the Gold Coast. But as expected, the kids aren’t too happy about travelling into an internet dead zone.

“Woah! Did you see that cop car?” Lincoln exclaims, pressing his face against the window as they whizz pass the police car checking speeds.

“That wasn’t a cop,” Lily says, “It looked like a race car to me.”

“It totally was! It had the red and blue lights on top,” Lincoln insists. He undoes his seatbelt as he tries to look through the back window. “It’s the coolest cop car I’ve ever seen! Look, you can still see the blue and orange checkered paint.”

“Lincoln, put your seatbelt back on!” Christy cries.

“Was it really a cop?” Link asks.

“You weren’t speeding, were you?” Christy says, eyeing the kids in the rear-view mirror.

“No…”

“You don’t sound very convinced.”

“I’m not speeding,” Link insists, glancing nervously at the speedometer. “I feel like I am though. The numbers are so high... 110km? Is that right?”

“Jessie wouldn’t let Rhett speed on the highway so if you’re matching his speed, we should be safe.”

Christy raises a good point. He’s been able to trail behind Rhett at a steady speed without exceeding 110km/h, and even though it  _ sounds _ fast, it doesn’t  _ feel _ as fast as he would be driving on a rural highway like this. Still, he’d rather not incur a speeding ticket on a rental car.

Between his two siblings in the back of the car, Lando asks, “Can we have some music on, Dad?”

“Yeah, my phone is almost out of battery,” Lincoln says.

“Sure,” Link says, “Let’s listen to something local.”

He reaches the buttons to the radio and starts flicking through the stations.

Frustrated with her Dad jumping from station to station, Lily says, “I’ll look up a good one, okay?  _ I _ haven’t wasted all of my battery playing Pokemon Go like you two.”

“I still need to catch a Kangaskhan!” Lando protests.

“Isn’t that a song? Genghis Khan?” Link asks.

Before anyone can answer, Lily tells her Mom a series of numbers for the nationwide radio station, Triple J. Christy swats Link’s hand away so that she can find the station and leave her husband to drive more safely. When she finds it, a man and a woman seem to be taking questions from callers and answering them on-air.

Link continues on his last train of thought, “Genghis Khan… He was the leader of... something... We could call up and ask the radio people about that.”

“I think the man’s a scientist,” Christy points out, “Everyone’s asking ‘Dr Karl’ science questions.”

“Can’t you just google it?” Lincoln says.

“Sometimes it’s more informative to speak to someone who is an expert in the area of question,” Link says, trying to impart an important lesson to his kids. “You’ll find you’ll get a more personalised answer than just asking google or Siri.”

“That’s true,” Christy agrees, “Plus, what if your question is so long that you don’t know how to look it up? If you’re talking to someone, you can give context without worrying about precise wording.”

Link nods. “Alright,  _ without _ looking it up, I have a question for y’all. Does anyone know any Australian musicians?”

“Are you an expert in the area?” Christy teases him.

“I’m curious. I can think of two,” Link says, cottoning on that he may disprove his own point.

“I think Sia is from Australia,” Lily says.

“Really? Wow, okay. One for Lily. Anyone else?”

“The Hilltop Hoods are from Adelaide!” Lincoln says “Can we see them when we go?”

“They probably don’t live there anymore, honey,” Christy says.

“Do you know who they are?” Link asks Christy, and when she shakes her head, he glances in the rear-view at Lando, who shrugs as well. “No one else has any guesses? Come on, there are two massive ones we’re missing.”

“Oh!” Christy claps her hands, “Olivia Newton-John.”

“Debatable, but I’ll take it.”

Christy purses her lips. “Alright, what are your two, Dr. expert on Australian music?”

“AC/DC and Midnight OIl,” Link says, “I win!”

“So Dad wins because he can think of one more than us?” Lincoln asks.

Luckily, Link doesn’t have to dig himself further into his hole because a song starts to play on the radio that he instantly recognises. He turns up the volume and cheers.

Lincoln shares his excitement. “Is this Kendrick?!”

“Oh, they play him on the radio? I’m not sure if it’s appropriate, Link,” Christy says.

Link hadn’t thought of this, having been caught up in the incredulity of hearing Kendrick Lamar over radio waves. His next thought is that perhaps it’s a radio edit that hadn’t circulated in the States. It wasn’t. No wonder Australians are known for their foul language use.

 

 

_[Accommodation at first Great Ocean Road stop]_   


 

 

They arrive at their accommodation which is a large two storey villa overlooking the beach. Downstairs is a large, open plan family room with a television, couches, a large dining table and a modern kitchen. The bedrooms occupy the second storey, with the master bedroom connecting to a balcony large enough to house a fire pit encircled with twin outdoor lounges. It’s lavish enough for Link to question, but Rhett insists he landed a good deal on their four night crawl along the Great Ocean Road.

After taking in the items they’ll need for the one night they’re staying, they all jump back into the two vehicles and drive into the town for lunch. They spend the afternoon at the beach, swimming in the water and playing on the white sand that stretches on and on. It’s a warm enough day that there are people on the beach, though not many, which affords the adults some agency to let their touches linger longer than in the throes of the bustling city. It’s affection they really need when they see people walking their dogs on the beach which remind them of the girls they left behind.

A seaside vendor sells them all ice cream, a decision Rhett will regret later when he’ll start to feel queasy, but for the moment enjoys the novelty of a[ cowboy shaped](https://s.productreview.com.au/products/images/aaa_4d06dd3037ff3.png) ice cream. The kids begin to tire, and they all walk back to their cars. Along the way, tired feet drag along the wet shore, and some curiously watch on where shells [disappear](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Nv3jYOu8Y) into the sand, leaving small holes across the surface after the bubbles have subsided.

An order of fish and chips for dinner later, the kids lounge about downstairs watching a movie, leaving the adults to occupy the twin loveseats around the active fire pit. Together, the husbands and wives watch the sunset, chatting as the fire crackles into the changing sky. Silver tankers creeping along the ocean appear like they’re floating in the sky because of the way the clouds on the horizon blend seamlessly into the glistening sea. The past few days have been up and down for each of them, a changing configuration of being apart and together, of distance and closeness, and all the stress and support embroiled within who will be together and when and who will look after which kids. It can be confusing at times, but they make it work so long as they keep talking to each other, keep listening to each other’s desires and tending to their needs.

Sometimes they can get it wrong, too. Sometimes the gentle peace and love that they share is worn down by each other or by distressed children arguing over this or that. But each time, and Rhett should know this by now, each time they help each other up. They care for each other so deeply, so fully. He cannot begin to describe what it’s like to sit together in contented silence, watching the daylight wane. The laughter of their children muffled by walls and floors, the fire crackling and the distant sound of the waves crashing on the shore. And he’s so glad that he gets to spend this moment with three people he loves so much in this world.

Christy opens a second bottle of champagne, a cheeky, wet lipped smile as she refills each glass. Rhett downs his glass too quickly, a calculated move to make his stomach worry about something else other than the dairy products he should not have consumed on the beach. It makes him feel as dizzy as he feels on the inside, fingers tracing the neckline of Jessie’s blouse, his mind and guts and groin swirling with love and admiration for the woman seated beside him and his best friend and wife on the opposite seat.

Beneath his fingers, he feels Jessie clear her throat to speak. He draws his eyes to hers and watches in awe as the warm, orange hues of the sun reflect off the water behind her, as if she is the sun. His sun, bright and glowing beside the equally loved stars that make up his precious constellation which has orbited with him to the other side of the world where they bask together in the moonlight under a whole different set of stars.

“Rhett would agree,” Link says in response to Jessie. Rhett only tunes in now that he has heard his name. “Driving on the left side isn’t very hard. My ambidextrousness helps  _ a lot _ .”

“Oh no,” Christy shakes her head, playfully squeezing her husband’s knee. “He gets  _ far _ too distracted behind the wheel.”

Rhett laughs. “I’m constantly afraid that he’ll run someone over.”

“It’s very distressing!” Christy agrees, but she sends a warm smile to Link to let him know that no harm is intended.

“So,” Jessie begins, sidling up to Rhett, “Will you tell us about your little sidequest?”

Rhett grins, and takes Jessie’s legs over his knees. He strokes one leg, thigh and over the knee, shin and ankle and massages her feet until Jessie lifts his hand suggestively to caress her thighs where her dress has fallen back.

Rhett watches Jessie’s tongue dart out of her mouth, then asks, “What do you want to know?”

Jessie shares a look with Christy while her fingers stroke the back of Rhett’s neck.

“We want to know what you did to each other,” Christy says in a low voice.

Rhett swallows. His caressing on Jessie’s thigh becomes stilted as he immediately thinks about the hurt and confusion he inflicted between them.

“It was rough,” Link starts. He plays with Christy’s hair, combing two fingers through it, and feeling the salty ends between his forefinger and thumb. Rhett is prepared to get into it again. He’ll get into what he did and why he thought he was justified and how he was wrong again and again if it’ll make things better, even when he thought the equilibrium was balanced again. Then, Link surprises him by saying, “Rhett wanted it rough.”

“You left your mark on him,” Christy says, pawing closer to Link, her hand slipping around his waist and the hem of his shorts stretching as she must slip her hand behind his back where no one can see.

Link lifts his chin and Rhett can see a blush forming over Link’s cheeks, one that converts Rhett’s blush from worry to attraction.

“I did,” Link says huskily with his eyes trained on his wife’s, “He could barely walk up the mountain.”

A lust laden giggle swells out of Jessie, her thumb tickling the backside of Rhett’s left ear. “Could you feel him, baby?”

Rhett turns his head and lets Jessie’s thumb graze against his lips. He eyes her. Her head lies on the arm rest, her back supported by the cushions and her gorgeous legs draped over his lap.

“Rhett wanted nothing more than to get me off that mountain,” Link says, “Rhett treated me very well.”

“Oh, did I?” Rhett replies. His hand travels down his wife’s thigh, under the dress, and presses his thumb softly underneath the line of her underwear.

Link nods, his bottom lip caught between his teeth.

“I bet he did,” Christy says.

She then hoists her leg around Link and straddles him on the little loveseat. She easily lifts off her sundress which is the colour of the sunset and lets it float to the ground as if it were a sun soaked cloud plucked from the horizon. Link growls at the sight of her nude body and cups her breasts. She lowers her forehead to his silver crown, her golden hair wafting around her husband’s face in the evening breeze.

Rhett, having pushed one of Jessie’s legs off his knees, uses the newly granted access to let his fingers travel well beneath his wife’s underwear. Jessie pulls down one strap of her dress, and another, slowly, letting the silky fabric gather around her waist where Rhett has pushed it up from the bottom. She lifts her hips, letting Rhett’s fingers slide against her wet clitoris, and the two of them watch the other couple through lustful lenses.

The McLaughlin couple watch the way Christy’s ass curves in Link’s lap, watches the way Link’s tanned hands grip onto Christy’s pale waist, watch the way Link cranes his neck and chases his wife until they kiss. All the while, Rhett fingers Jessie, stroking two fingers in and out, teasingly slow. Christy grinds into Link, eliciting another groan that he tries to bite down. They can’t be too loud, not with all of the kids just a floor beneath them, and they all know how hard that is for Link, and how utterly contagious chatter is when they get going.

Christy quits toying with her husband and steps off him, leaving Link panting and pawing after her only for a second before she starts pulling him through the sliding doors and into the master bedroom. Jessie hops to her feet, lightheaded, and sways into Rhett’s arms as he stands up to catch her. She holds her dress around her waist still, her arms locked for no reason except that her brain signals are so infected by visions of love. Rhett holds her and kisses her neck and the fire crackles in front of them, within them, sending sparks that ignite her feet and propel them both to join the others in the bedroom.

Jessie bounces across the white washed floorboards and stops at the foot of the bed where she lets her dress drop around her ankles. She gazes down at Christy stretched out on the bed, then looks over at Link standing adjacent, his hand stuck in his shorts unable to move from the equally breathtaking vision of two women who he is in love with, naked and eager.

Jessie slinks over to Link and helps to undress him, nodding at Rhett to join Christy on the bed. Christy sits up, stretching her arms over her head, her back arching, her nipples pink and perky. Rhett licks his lips, but goes over to ensure that the door is locked before he does anything. Christy jumps off the bed with light grace like a pixie and slides one arm around Rhett’s waist while he’s facing the door, and lifts his shirt up his back to kiss his freckled skin. Rhett rests his forehead on the door, right hand flat on the wood close to his nose so that he can smell his wife’s scent on his fingers. His left hand holds onto Christy’s thin wrist. He marvels, as he has a million times over, at the daintiness of her body which masks the power she wields to expel love hexes over his body wherever she touches him.

Rhett tugs off his shorts and underwear, and pulls off his shirt as Christy kisses spells up his spine, her breasts plump against his back, her pussy wet where she slides over his thigh. Then, Christy begins to pull him to walk backwards until Rhett turns around and scoops her up in his arms. She fits her legs around his waist and his lips press on her sternum, and Rhett can hear her heart, hear her breathing, hear Link and Jessie panting on the bed behind Christy’s back.

He clambers onto the bed with her, the mattress heaving with the weight of twice what it’s built to carry, a bed creak that makes them all squeal with laughter as they roll into each other. A mess of limbs and hair and smiles until one of them, and all of them, hush. Groaning cut short, breathing kept quiet, forefingers on lips and the recollection of where they are and why they must be careful.

Jessie uses the pause to get supplies. Suitcase zippers teeth open and stay open, a plastic lid popping and the slick sound of gel squirting out of a tube. Christy lays on her back, head raised with a pillow, and spreads her legs around her husband and Rhett, where the two men find themselves twisting together. Rhett seizes Link, squeezes him as he kisses him hard because he loves him so much, because he loves everyone around him so fiercely. Leaves Link breathless and gasping and wanting more.

Link’s hands drive into Rhett’s hair, presses his body against Rhett’s and feels his cock throb against his abdomen. Eyes fluttering and rolling back with the heat and the thrill of Rhett flushed against him and Jessie’s lube slicked fingers playing with his hole. Link’s mouth finds Rhett’s shoulder and gets a mouthful, not hard, not biting, just filling, so that he can moan and huff heat and want out of his throat and not make too much noise in the process. He then pats Rhett’s waist, makes him turn back to Christy with a slap to his ass.

From the back, Jessie can just see Christy’s face in the triangle gap made between Rhett’s arm and torso, and she watches as Christy’s face lights up when Rhett looks down upon her. She pulls Rhett in for a kiss and Jessie watches Link’s hands running along Rhett’s curved back, finding the hooks in his hips, massaging Rhett’s lower back so that it won’t hurt so much later.

Jessie knees onto the bed with lube in hand and wraps one arm around Link’s front, snakes around and finds his stubbly chin and she kisses his neck. Amongst the careful pants from her lovers and the sound of blankets crunching under their weight and the ocean breeze dulling the force of the fire pit outside, she is comforted by the continued background noise downstairs. The movie gets louder and louder, their children laughing and squealing and blissfully unaware of what their parents are doing to each other in one locked bedroom. The volume of the movie is a little worrying but she knows that with Lily in charge, the kids will behave well enough. And besides, they can use the sound level to their advantage.

Jessie fits her knees either side of Link’s inner knees while she kisses his neck. She presses her body against his back, then lifts one knee next to his outer so that she can rut her pussy against his thigh. Her arm disentangles from Link’s front so that she can offer the lube to Link, who graciously nods at her. His glasses slide down his nose from the sweat and Jessie lifts them off his face, getting up to place them safely on the bedside table.

“Jess can you grab a pillow for me please?” Christy asks.

Jessie nods, words escaping her as she sees Rhett move from kissing Christy’s mouth to kissing her collarbone and then taking one of her nipples into his mouth. Christy throws an arm out, waving around until she can get a hold of flesh and finds Jessie’s thigh.

“Jessie,” She whines, breathy.

Jessie’s mouth is hot and dry but she jolts into action when her friend gives her thigh a little squeeze. She reaches down to grab one of the thick pillows Christy had knocked to the ground. Christy arches her back, keening into Rhett’s touch and then lifts her hips and folds her knees to her chest so that Jessie can shove the pillow beneath her ass. Before returning to Link, Jessie leans on Christy’s legs for support as she snatches a kiss from her husband.

He kisses hungrily, his beard wiry, but soft, and every couple of seconds he huffs heavily into her mouth which sends shivers down her spine. She feels Christy tapping her lower back and she closes her eyes, but thinks she ought to return to Link anyway. She clambers off Christy and Rhett and returns to Link, the sound of Christy’s quiet moan licking her back when Rhett pushes into her.

“Oh  _ gosh _ ,” Rhett murmurs.

Blood pulses all through Jessie’s body while she returns to her spot behind Link and sees that he has been busy fingering her husband.

Link thrusts three fingers into Rhett’s hole, widening him as much as he can because boy, he’s going to need it. He feels Jessie’s warm presence return behind him, hungry, shaky little kisses dancing over his shoulders and arms and he wonders what she thinks at the sight of him finger fucking her husband,  _ knowing _ what’s going to happen next. He draws his fingers out of Rhett, muscles keening to fill the gaps that he has left, and he leans over to set the lube aside before getting a good grip on Rhett’s hips.

Jessie’s fingers have gone too damp and she reaches for the lube when Link discards it, and in the corner of her eye she can see Link moving to slide his slick cock teasingly along Rhett’s hole, then beneath his balls and likely reaching Christy too. Lucky girl. She almost drops the lube because her whole body is so hot and shaking. She has to latch onto Link’s shoulder to keep herself steady, and awkwardly squirts some out with one hand holding the tube at the same time.

“Are you ready, boy?” Link coos as he slowly slides his cock back and forth.

“Mmmm,” Rhett huffs, “Yeah.”

Jessie presses her ear against one of Link’s shoulder blades. Feels the tension and the power it takes to push into her husband, and hears Link’s heart hammering as loud as hers inside his chest. A husky moan rolls out of Rhett’s mouth, one that Christy must catch in her throat because the sound is quickly dulled. Jessie uses this moment to flick her lube slicked finger inside Link’s hole, a move which makes him jolt in surprise causing a ricochet of movement through to Rhett and Christy as well.

“Jessie!” He yelps, a shrill sounds which is cut off when Jessie wraps around him and clamps her hand over his mouth.

Link turns his lips to kiss Jessie’s palm. She can feel him breathing heavily over her fingers, concentrated inhales underlays moments before Link goes to push into Rhett again. He lifts his ass, too, a sign for Jessie to continue her exploration despite Link’s sudden outburst. She swallows, and slides her finger in deeper than she had before, watching the way it makes all three of them convulse in varying degrees.

Rhett has a strong guess about what his wife is doing to Link to make him so erratic. Well, it isn’t so much erratic as it is  _ powerful _ because it’s that extra push that Rhett needs, that extra jump into extremities which makes Link’s cock entirely fill him, which in turns makes Rhett growl and tremble and slam into Christy. It’s worse for him because he’s in the middle of it all. He’s fucking and being fucked and imagining what it feels like for all angles. And it’s  _ bad _ because it’s contagious. Feeling what they feel, finding it harder and harder to hold back grunts and moans and pleading for more.

Together, they’re eucalyptuses in the fire season, prone to explosions when the wildfires rip through the woodlands. When Christy moans, he moans. When he grunts, Link grunts. When Jessie whines, they all do too and they  _ try _ to stop. They cover their mouths and bite their tongues but the eucalyptus oil is within the trees, it’s what they’re made of in their natural state. They can’t help but be set off by each other.

“Oh,  _ Jesus _ !” Christy cries and no one stops her.

Her head thrown back on the pillow beneath her head, her legs now spread wide and high, feet in the hot evening air and she can feel  _ everything _ . Rhett’s cock deep inside her and working to hit the right spot over and over even though he’s being jolted by Link, he finds his way back easily every time.

She pleads, then, to no one in particular, “Go faster, make him go faster.”

Rhett grunts and smiles and Jessie curses as she feels the men speed up. Link thinks he commands the rhythm but it’s refined by Jessie with her fingers in his hole, tickling when she likes to change it up, and she can tell Link  _ loves _ it by the way he sucks at her palm. But then their interlocking bodies begin to fall apart, not because they weren’t made for each other but because the silent explosions within them are getting too hard to contain when they’ve already let some slip through.

Jessie starts to cum and her hand slips off Link’s lips and moves down his chin, his sweaty neck, his collarbone then falls away down to her clit. Her body drooping as boneless as the way Christy’s dress had floated through the air, and she parts from Link to curl up beside Christy on the mattress where she can gaze up at the two men she loves and continue to ride through her orgasm with her fingers at her clit.  

“Rhett, oh  _ God _ baby, you feel so good,” Link growls the moment Jessie lets him, “Do you like it? How does it feel? Christy, honey, I like the way you sound. Make that sound again, do it for me, baby.”

Even if Link had his glasses, he wouldn’t be able to see anything. It’s so hot, he’s so hot, his vision is a blur and he’s panting and saying things that are on his mind and things that he didn’t know he wanted to say as he fucks his best friend as his best friend fucks his wife. It’s insane, he always thinks that, it’s insane how they work together so well. And how good it feels, and how good it  _ looks _ . A blur of blonde and brown hair, flushed pink back freckled with sunspots and love bites. He can’t stand it. He good it all is. Rhett taking everything that he gives him, and handing it over to his wife beneath Rhett. Screams strangled in throats so wet and debauched and he wants to take it all in. The shapes of the people he loves, the way they smile and their eyes twinkle but he keeps being drawn back to his cock in an asshole and then he’s cumming anyway.

Rhett has a little more composure, only a little, because it’s mind blowing to feel his best friend’s hot cum fill him at the same time as his own cock thrusts deep in Christy’s wet and clenching pussy. It’s a lot to take in, mentally and physically, and a lot to expel out when he howls the pain and the pleasure over Christy’s lips which have taken their fill. He spills out into her, words and non-words spilling out over her neck. His hands paw for her, finds Jessie instead, curled up beside them and she mewls with feverish delight when he fondles her breast as he wrings out the last of his blanks.

Link knows that by this point, Rhett’s back must be causing him trouble so he’s careful not to flop over Rhett’s back after he’s spent. Instead, he slides down on the end of the bed, head between Jessie’s shaved legs and envelops Rhett in his arms when he gravitates toward him. He rubs Rhett’s lower back soothingly, kisses the man he’s loved for thirty-odd years, and then lie together, panting, clinging onto the world so that they can witness what their wives are doing with as much clarity as they can muster.

The sight of the boys cumming helped Jessie through her second wave but she only had to share one longing glance with Christy to know that the blonde wasn’t done yet. Their men cling to each other, looking exhausted and limp and she feels their eyes on her when she crawls over to Christy to settle between her legs. She’s melting candle wax herself, sticky and hot; but note the tense in the suffix, because she can keep going all night if she has to in order to satiate all parties. She spreads Christy’s labia with her thumbs and tastes Rhett’s cum. Soon she’ll taste Christy’s too.

Rhett moans quietly, letting the sound rumble through his chest while Link massages him, kisses the back of his neck and Rhett hopes that Link can still see what their wives are doing to each other. Christy’s got her fingers combing through Jessie’s hair and the contrast of colour is something Rhett appreciates, or maybe it’s just the sight of his wife’s silky hair gliding over skin whether it be pale or tan or freckled like his own.

Sleep creeps up on him fast and he refuses to black out. He turns to kiss Link, tender, and slow because they’re both tired and lazy and they have something to watch anyway. Rhett pulls Link’s arm around his waist and feels the man’s breath over his ear and his eyelids are far too heavy for his liking, as they both watch Jessie eat Christy out. But the blackness is seeping through and, later, he can’t remember if he even saw when Christy came but for now, he thanks Link and thanks God for a blessed, easy day before allowing sleep to overcome him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (this was not meant to be a day by day fic. it's meant to end very soon though... hope you're liking it so far!)


End file.
